


Heaven's Garden

by RenegadeWarrior



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Bullying, Plants are everywhere, Tsuna has a magical green thumb, Tsuna is a grief counselor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-06 23:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1876926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenegadeWarrior/pseuds/RenegadeWarrior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tsuna has a green thumb.  A magical green thumb.  When Reborn orders him to find candidates to join his family and no suitable ones appear, Tsuna’s favorite plants become human to fill the position for the one who has given them the love and care they needed when they needed it the most.  But why do they look like people who have already died?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Which a Garden is Formed

For the years to come Sawada Tsunayoshi would cement his nickname of Dame-Tsuna with his constant bouts of clumsiness and his failure at everything in school, both physically and academically.  The title blinded the eyes of others who never took a second, much less third look at the perpetually clumsy boy.  Therefore, it was years before anyone aside from his mother realized that he had a green thumb.  A magical green thumb that is.

Plants just seemed to flourish under his care.  Nearly dead shrubs came back to life. Broken twigs would be miniature bushes in a few short months.  Even seeds that seemed like they would never sprout sprung forth new greenery after a single night on his windowsill.

Nana, for all her airheaded tendencies and occasional tactless words, was still a caring mother and smart woman. She quickly had her son join her during her usual yard work sessions once she discovered his ability.  Her vegetable garden soon was the envy of the neighborhood, but when asked about the secrets of its rapid and prosperous growth, her reply would always be, “It’s been blessed by someone with much love and kindness.”

In an effort to encourage Tsuna, because she had doubts that he’d ever actually accomplish anything in school, she spared no expense when it came to any plant, pot, or gardening tool he wanted which really wasn’t much.  He was happy with a few shovels, gloves, and simply just working with the plants.  It gave Nana no small amount of relief that at the very least, her son had a future in horticulture or as a florist.

Tsuna certainly saved her a lot of money on groceries.  Nothing could beat fresh produce. She even had a small green house built and attached to the kitchen so Tsuna could grow things that were out of season or needed a more suitable environment than the outdoors offered.

* * *

Then one day, Tsuna came home cradling a small sickly looking rose bush. He was soaked to the bone from the heavy storm outside. From what Nana could make out from his cries of “I need a big pot! And new soil! And paper towels! An-and the pruning shears!” The plant had come from a nursery truck that had been unloading them into a local florist’s shop. The manager had noticed that the small bush was showing signs of gray mold, a fungal disease that turned the vegetation black. Strangely enough, it had been the only diseased one out of the entire shipment, but he had the other plants sprayed down anyways. This particular plant though was deemed too infected to be worth the trouble to save and was put aside to be destroyed.

The sudden storm had sent people rushing to the closest shelter to wait out the rain and Tsuna had ended up in the florist’s shop. When her kind hearted son heard this, he wanted to give the plant a chance to live and convinced the man to give him the bush for free. He spent the money he was supposed to buy the new Dragonball Z manga with on fungicide and immediately rushed home with his prize.

It took three hours for him to carefully prune and clean all the heavily infected parts. It took three weeks for him to be confident enough that the gray mold was truly gone and once again repotted his new rose into a red ceramic pot with the richest soil he could find. It took three months for the bush to begin budding again and one morning Tsuna awoke to the most beautiful display of bright red roses he had ever seen. As if it was saying ‘Thank You’ with all its might, the rose bush named Storm had shown off all of its prettiest flowers in an explosion of gratitude to its nine-year-old savior.

* * *

It was the first of many special plants that Tsuna kept in his room.

The next one was a small lily that had just started to bloom. There had been a funeral for a young boy and this particular pot had been left behind in one of the relative’s car. No one really wanted a reminder from such a morbid event, so it was left in an alley next to a dumpster for the garbage collection truck. Tsuna, taking this particular alley to escape from bullies, saw the lonely plant and scooped it up on his way home. Days later, the lily spread its beautiful yellow petals wide open. It was named Sun and eventually moved to a yellow pot by a ten-year-old Tsuna.

After that came another rose. It laid on the marble-tiled flooring of a large fancy department store that Tsuna and his mother had been shopping in. The plant’s pot had somehow fallen from a tall display pillar and nearly concussed a passing customer. The man, after angrily shouting and threatening to sue the management, stomped on and destroyed most of the small bush. What was left was salvaged by Tsuna and placed into a plastic bag given to him by a kind cashier. Tsuna spent more time carefully nurturing this damaged bush and nearly six months later was rewarded with a single dark purple rose blooming from the newly named, Mist.

There was another flowering plant found around the same time as Mist. A week after Tsuna had brought home his new rose; he found a young sprout growing near a remote area at Namimori Elementary School. It was a testament to the small plant’s tenacity, that it had taken root in a large crack, against the wall of the school in a shaded area where most of the nutrients in the soil had been taken by trees and larger plants.

Tsuna cared for and talked to the plant during his lunch breaks as it was growing in his favorite hiding spot from bullies. He occasionally snuck a stick of fertilizer and a cup of his darkest potting soil to it and once even brought his pruning shears to school to cut the overhanging branches of a nearby bush, ensuring that the young plant would receive enough sunlight. Three months later, the school began to remodel the area to add a new sidewalk and Tsuna dug out and brought home the carnation on a late Friday afternoon, before the bulldozers had begun tearing his best hiding place apart. Cloud, perhaps as a point to Mist, bloomed with a single purple flower as well on the same day for Tsuna’s twelfth birthday.

Lightning, a green chrysanthemum, had been an apology gift to a neighbor whose suitor wanted her to forgive him after a horrible date. It and he had been rejected and the depressed man handed it off to a passing Tsuna with a gruff, “Here kid. Trash this for me will ya?” before heading off to drink away his failure. Tsuna, of course, ignored him and added the plant to the growing collection in his room.

Little Dragon was also a gift, but it was one of thanks. The small plum blossom bonsai was part of a prized collection that belonged to an old man, named Hibiki, whose house could have burned down from the carelessness of a discarded glowing cigarette. As it was, only a small part of the place actually caught on fire, but at least he wasn’t dead, which he would have been if Tsuna hadn’t alerted the man’s neighbors who in turn woke him up from his nap.

The man offered Tsuna any of his smaller plants and Tsuna chose to take the only one that had been damaged by the fire. He was incredibly stubborn about his choice. So in turn, Hibiki offered to trim off the damaged parts and teach the young boy how to care for this particular plant. To his surprise and delight, Tsuna’s green thumb had an effect on all of his other plants as well. Nana was proud of her son and had no qualms about the constant visits between Tsuna and the old man who tried to teach everything he knew about his beloved bonsai to the young boy.

Hibiki passed away four months later, and while the rest of his collection was split between his surviving families, various plant care guides and several handwritten notebooks full of advice had already been given to the twelve-year-old Tsuna to be added to his growing collection of books.

The latest one was taken in shortly after middle school started. A screaming couple had taken to throwing things at each other and could be heard from the open window on the second story of their house. Some unknown feeling caused Tsuna to duck as a large china bowl sailed past the spot his head used to be, shattering as it hit the ground. It made him freeze as a heavy encyclopedia brushed against his nose and finally stopped him before he stepped on a green stem half hidden under more broken crockery. When he removed enough debris, he uncovered the broken back of a wicker chair that had more greenery clinging to it. Amidst the destruction, the roots had remained intact so Tsuna rushed home and away from the danger zone with his prize. He had potted it, chair back and all, into a large blue ceramic pot. Rain would eventually grow to cover the entire piece looking more like a bush that a vine.

* * *

But for all his talent and skill, Tsuna was still Dame-Tsuna to his peers and teachers.  He was still shy and somewhat clumsy.  Still horrible at both academics and sports and his mother was slowly losing hope for improvement in those areas.  His only friends were his beloved plants and even if they couldn’t say a word, sometimes Tsuna felt as if they were listening.  Which was probably just his wishful thinking, but it still felt nice to think that something cared even if they weren’t capable of sentient thought. 

Honestly, Tsuna wasn’t too sure why he continued to go to school.  He really had no love for the place itself and there was no one he wanted to see, not to mention plenty of people he didn’t want to even think about.  Nana still pushed him to go and tried to convince him to at least finish middle school.  Afterwards, he could try to get a job at a nursery.  It would be hard if he didn’t at least finish high school, but near impossible if he became a middle school dropout.

Still, while things could have been better, Tsuna still had something to smile about everyday as he entered his home.  Life wasn’t really all that great, but as he greeted the rainbow of colors in his room, Tsuna felt that it wasn’t too bad either.

“Everyone! I’m home!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It should be obvious who most of these plants are. For those who will want a more specific plant typing here’s the list. I was looking more for color than anything else to represent them, so ignore any possible flower meanings attached to them. I had half a mind to turn them all into roses, but I wanted them be different. Everyone is named for the patterns on their pots.
> 
> Gokudera “Storm”-Rose, Breed: Crimson Bouquet  
> -Almost became a Hibiscus, but I was oddly fixated on a red rose.
> 
> Hibari “Cloud”- Carnation, Breed: Moonshadow  
> -A serious toss-up here. The moon series of carnations are all really pretty. He nearly became either a lilac bush or another rose.
> 
> Yamamoto “Rain”-Clematis, Breed: Roguchi  
> -Almost became a Morning Glory (Breed: Heavenly Blue).
> 
> Lambo “Lightning”- Chrysanthemum, Breed: Shamrock  
> -Nearly became a Zinnia (Breed: Envy) until I discovered the one above.
> 
> Mukuro/Chrome “Mist”-Rose, Breed: Burgundy Iceberg/Ebb Tide  
> -Mukuro was supposed to be an Iris (Breed: Gypsy Romance), but for the future plot for Chrome, he had to become a rose bush.
> 
> Ryohei “Sun”-Lily, Breed: Fata Morgana or Asiatic Double Lily  
> -Was supposed to be a Sunflower (Breed: Teddy Bear), but those are annuals and I wanted all the plants to be something that comes back.
> 
> I-Pin “Little Dragon” – Plum Blossom (red colored flowers)  
> -Nearly became a Peony (Breed: Maroon Dragon Claw or Coiled Dragon in the Mist).


	2. In Which the Garden Becomes a Place for Relaxation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The point of view here kinda jumps around a little, but I hope it doesn’t bother you too much. The tone of this chapter is far more depressing than the first chapter let on, but oh well.
> 
> This chapter starts shortly after Hibiki dies, before Tsuna enters middle school. Tsuna is currently 12.

As time passed, the plants under Tsuna’s care thrived, but there was no one who saw his favorites aside from his mother and Hibiki.  Hibiki who was now dead.  At least he had peacefully passed away in his sleep.  He had once proclaimed that he had gotten done everything that he had wanted to do in life and everything else was just a bonus. _“I’ve got no regrets boy.  It’s the best way to live and I hope that you’ll be able to do it too someday.”_

Living without regret…

That sounded amazing, wonderful, almost like a dream…but Tsuna had things to do.  Things to protect.  Things to care for.  He couldn’t indulge himself.  Not like the way Hibiki had wanted him to.  To keep on going, he needed to survive and to do that, he needed to keep his head down and bite back whatever he truly felt. 

But Tsuna still missed him terribly.  He was one of the few people who actually saw something worthwhile in Tsuna and didn’t hesitate to let him know that he did.

* * *

One Sunday morning, Tsuna, on his way home from picking up more seeds, passed by a baby in red Chinese robes with a red pacifier hanging from his neck.  He was simply strolling along the top of a stone wall.  The sight was enough to make Tsuna stop and in turn the baby stopped as well when he noticed that he was being stared at.

Tsuna opened his mouth to ask if he was lost, but stopped and thought better of it.  Something was telling him that this wasn’t the right thing to ask.

“Yes? Is there something you need?”

While Tsuna tried to overlook the fact that this strange baby was surprisingly articulate and had a ridiculously deep voice for his size, his mouth moved of its own accord.

“Are you alright?”

The baby blinked at him.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I-I…well…you just seem like you’re really sad about something.  Do…do you want to talk about it?” 

The baby was now giving him a considering look.

Tsuna realized that he should be minding his own business, but those eyes…

Those eyes were familiar, full of grief and loss.  Aside from the glimmer of guilt and self-loathing, they didn’t look too different from the way his own eyes did lately.

Tsuna didn’t know a thing about this stranger’s circumstances, but he did realize that the baby would probably feel better after talking it out.  At least, he did.  Whenever Tsuna’s problems were getting to be too much for him to handle, he would cry or talk to the various flowering plants in his room.  It’s not like there was anyone else who he could go to, but there was some relief to be felt in pouring out his troubles.

“You would be willing to listen to a complete stranger’s troubles?”

“Maybe.  Sometimes it’s better to talk to someone you don’t know.  Sometimes the people you do know are too close and you need someone where it wouldn’t matter what you say to them because you’ll probably never have to see them again.  You’ll get it off your chest and the stranger will carry your some of your burden away never to be seen again.”

The baby…was he really a baby?  He had such a mature expression on his chubby, and rather adorable, face.  There was a little longing mixed in as if he wanted to accept the offer and Tsuna mentally encouraged him with all his might.

“Very well then kind stranger.  I accept your offer.  Where would you like to go?”

“Umm…” In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have offered a complete stranger something like this, but he knew all too well what it was like to have things bottled up with no way to vent.  It built and it built until you were mired deep into depression with every single thing that bothered you pressed heavily onto your shoulders.  Tsuna had plenty of people to do that for him.  He didn’t need to add anymore to the pile himself.

“Would you like to come to my house? We can have some tea and snacks in my room and…”

The baby looked at him carefully as he trailed off.

“And?”

“And if you don’t want to talk to me, then you can talk to my flowers. It’s what I do.  They’re great listeners and I always feel better just being with them.  I can wait in the living room until you’re done.”

“There is no need for that.  You are being generous enough as it is.”

With that Tsuna continued on his way home, the baby following along beside him.

“I guess Mama must have gone out.  You can wait here if you’d like Stranger-san. Sorry for the mess.”

“Thank you very much Stranger-san.  It’s quite alright.  I’ve seen far worse.”

Somewhere along the way, they had agreed to simply refer to the other as Stranger-san.  It was odd and sort of silly, but it suited their purpose just fine.  As Tsuna went back down to prepare some tea and snacks, Fon took a good look around the room.

What he saw certainly impressed him.  The bottom two shelves of a wooden bookcase in one corner had several small containers color coordinated with supplies for their matching plant.  Above those where mostly books on plant care with the highest ones filled with manga. 

Bright green leaves and vibrant flowers in pots of dark rich soil added the smell of life into the small room.  Each and every one of them was clearly healthy and cared for. 

The curtains had been drawn and tied back to allow as much sunlight into the room as possible.  A short square table was centered on the floor with tall yellow lilies sitting in the middle, green chrysanthemums inches away from it.  The larger plants were on the floor.  The red roses sat by the foot of the bed still in the light of the windows.  Dark purple roses were set about five feet away from it.  The purple carnations sat a bit away from the rest of the plants close to the wall.  On the wooden desk pressed against the wall was a…a small red plum blossom bonsai. 

Fon leapt up onto the desk to take a better look.  The miniature tree was in set in a black rectangular ceramic pot.  A red and gold dragon was painted on each of the longer sides.  Small white pebbles covered the top of the soil making the dark roots and trunk stick out in contrast.  The bright blossoms on the otherwise bare branches drew the eyes in.

I-Pin had loved these.  They had been her favorites back in China.  The ones he was used to were usually pink or white though.  He didn’t see red too often.  In fact, aside from the red rose bush and the yellow lily all of these plants had rare colors.  Even then, the lily had twice as many petals as he was used to seeing and the rose bush, for its size, had an incredible abundance of flowers.

I-Pin…if only he had waited a little longer before allowing her to take another solo mission.  He could have followed her just to make sure, but with the recent successes she had had, he had become a little complacent and decided to back off and let her handle it with him shadowing her every move.  She was fine until the last assignment had several opponents corner her on a bridge and she ended up using her Pinzu-Timed Super Explosion.  While unharmed from the explosion itself, she had been stunned by it and as the bridge collapsed into the water below, I-Pin unable to move away from the falling stones in time, drowned as she was swept downstream.  Fon had found her body washed up a few miles away against the muddy bank.  He closed his eyes in pain as the memories washed over him.

“I’m back, Stranger-san.  Do…do you need sometime alone?” 

Fon watched as the young boy set down a tray with a pitcher of iced barley tea, two glasses, one clearly smaller than the other, and, a plate with several rice crackers and cookies neatly arranged on it.

“Not at the moment.  Tell me Stranger-san.  All are of these plants your doing?  They’re quite impressive.”

“Hmm? Oh, thank you.  But I didn’t raise them from a seed or anything like that.  Most of these were just given to me. Like that one.”

The brunet pointed at the red rose bush.

“That was the first one I got.  It’s a Crimson Bouquet Rose and it had gray mold.  The florist was just going to have it destroyed because he didn’t want to have to deal with attempting to save it, but he gave it to me for free when I asked.  The lilies are called the Fata Morgana or Asiatic Double Lily.  I found it in an alley by a dump.  The purple rose bush is called Burgundy Iceberg.  It came from a high-end department store where most of it had been damaged.  The purple carnations are called Moonshadow.  They were growing at school somehow, but when the area was going to be leveled out for a new sidewalk…” Here the boy flushed a little, “I dug it out and took it home.  The Shamrock Chrysanthemum came from a random guy on the street who asked me to trash it for him.  And the Plum Blossom…”

Seems like Fon wasn’t the only one who had sad memories associated with this particular plant.

“…Little Dragon was given to me as thanks by an old man.” 

“Little Dragon?”

“A-ah. I named it by the design on its pot.  The rest were well...” 

“That’s Lightning.” He pointed to the chrysanthemum.  “I was going to transplant it into a new pot after I got it, but the pot I was originally going to put it in broke.  There was a storm and then the lightning and thunder scared me and I dropped it.  So that’s how it got its name.”  The boy was now bright red and looking away shyly as he gestured to the next one.

“That’s Sun next to it.  There had been two straight weeks of rain and on the day I found this one, the sun was shining really bright and strong.”

“Cloud was…well.  It was growing at a place that I still couldn’t figure out how it even managed to sprout at, but the area was going to be renovated so everything there was about to be torn up.  The construction workers were supposed to start that day, but dark clouds came in and they decided to wait out the coming storm…long enough for me sneak in and-I mean _take_ Cloud home.”

The baby didn’t bat an eye at his hasty change of words, so Tsuna continued even as his cheeks grew a little warm.

 “Mist came from a department store.  It was a display plant that was nearly destroyed after it fell on a customer.  The cashier gave me a bag to put it in and it had the name of the perfume store that she was working at, Fragrances of the Myst.”

“And Storm.”  Here Tsuna gentle smile widened.  “Storm is the first personal plant that I took in.  I got it for free and carried it home through a heavy storm.  It was in bad shape and took all night to clean and treat even with Mama’s help.  We finished just at the storm broke and here it is, three years later and healthier than ever.”  Realizing that he was monologing, Tsuna’s blush returned with a vengeance.

Fon could barely hide the surprise on his face.  Was it coincidence or something more? That they were all named after a type of flame?

“I-it’s sort of silly isn’t it?” 

“No. Not at all.  They are fitting names.”

 The silence was becoming a little awkward, so Tsuna began his daily afternoon checkups on each plant as the red robed infant watched sipping at his tea and nibbling on a cracker.

Watering, wiping leaves and petals, checking and adding more fertilizer if he deemed it necessary and pruning away dead or dying leaves.  While working, he nearly forgot about his visitor and jumped when Stranger-san began talking.

“My cousin who lived here passed away a little over a year ago.  I was going to bring flowers for his grave, but in the end I never did.  He didn’t really care for what he considered frivolous things.  We weren’t especially close, but I liked to think that he respected me…somewhat.”

Stranger-san took another sip of his tea and remained silent for a little while. In that time, Tsuna snipped off three leaves and a new shoot that would have grown into a tight intersection of two bigger branches from Mist.  He frowned a little.  If it hadn’t come out so close to the larger one above, he could have trained it to grow outward away from main plant.

“I also lost my apprentice nearly five months ago.  She…she was very promising and very young.  I should have been with her, but I was confident that she would have been fine by herself for a little while.  Maybe too confident.”

The baby clutched his small glass tightly with both hands and decided to put it down before he shattered it.

Tsuna didn’t say a word as he refilled it and moved on from Mist to Storm, but he would sometimes hum snippets of random songs.  He wiped off each of the instruments he had been using for Mist with a damp cloth and laid them out in a row on top of towel on the floor as he settled himself in front of his red rose bush.

They continued this way for another hour, Tsuna, quietly humming and working with the occasional tidbits of the baby’s problems interspersing the soothing atmosphere.  When the infant seemed to have said all that he needed to, he closed his eyes and let the warmth of the sun, the earthy fragrance of the room and brunet’s soft humming lull him into a sense of peace that he had not been able to achieve for over a year.

Once Tsuna had finished and packed all his supplies back into the bookshelf, he finally sat down to take a sip of his own glass and snagged a few rice crackers for himself.

“I need to start on the rest outside.” Tsuna gestured to the window. “What would you like to do now?”

“Hmm?” The baby leapt onto the window sill and raised a brow at the sight below

“Is that your work as well, Stranger-san?”

“What?”  Tsuna looked up from where he had been pouring more tea into his glasses.  “Oh. The vegetable garden?  Mama and I work on it together.  Fresh fruits and vegetables always taste better than the store bought ones and Mama is a great cook.  She makes the best meals with them.  Even though I don’t really like vegetables, I like the ones she cooks and…um…sorry for rambling.”

“It’s alright.  If you don’t mind, I’d like to watch you work for a little longer.  With the love and care you provide for these plants, it is no wonder that they look as beautiful as they do.”

“Oh. Umm. Thank you.”  The boy’s face was turning red. He probably wasn’t used to being praised or just shy, but either way it was an endearing sight.

It turned into an amusing one, when the baby jumped out the open window, landing safely on the grassy lawn below.

* * *

Outside, a tiny white-furred monkey had joined the pair, and Stranger-san introduced him as Lichi. His partner, who was a fast learner and really quite helpful despite Tsuna’s initial reservations. His small size and nimble body allowed him to reach places Tsuna could not. In the space of the afternoon, Lichi became quite proficient at tying back overlapping branches and Fon, with the various ways of clearing unwanted growths.

* * *

Tsuna’s mother had called home saying that she wouldn’t be home late due to the fact that she was stuck in traffic.  Apparently, Tsuna had forgotten that she and several of her friends had planned an impromptu shopping trip in Tokyo for the day. 

A little flustered, Tsuna asked if the tiny duo would join him for dinner.  His reasoning being that food tasted better when eaten with company and Fon accepted seeing as he had nowhere else to be at the moment.  So Tsuna set about preparing dinner for himself, Lichi, and Stranger-san and brought it to his room explaining that both he and his mother liked to eat there surrounded by his favorite plants.

“I can certainly see why.”

Tsuna flushed when Fon praised him for their meal of vegetable stir-fry, braised eel, and fried rice with omelets.  Lichi chattered his approval as well, a monkey dish and the smallest teacup Tsuna could find by his side.

“I-i-it’s really not that special.  Mama’s a much better cook than me.”

“I think that you don’t give yourself enough credit, Stranger-san.”

The boy looked down, still red faced as he mumbled.

“No way.  The only thing I can do is care for plants.  They call me Dame-Tsu-“  He caught himself with a grimace.

“Dame for a reason.  I fail at every sport so I’m always the last pick for teams and I’m the slowest runner in my entire school.  The highest grade I’ve ever gotten was a 50 on a Japanese test and that was because it was multiple choice and I just guessed.  My usual grades are in the 20s at the most and I’m the least popular kid too and…sorry.  I’m rambling about my problems when there are others less fortunate than me.”

“It is fine.  I’m here to listen as well.  After all, wasn’t this the reason we are still referring to each other as Stranger-san?”

So red-faced and grateful, Tsuna talked about the old man who had been the only other person aside from his mother to say anything kind to him as he cleaned the dishes and set aside a plate of leftovers for his mother ‘s  return.

* * *

Night had fallen and the street lamps outside flickered to life.  Fon stood on the sill of the opened window as he watched Tsuna rearrange his plants for the night.  He explained that it was so they would all get the morning sun, but some preferred partial shade during the afternoon and when he came home from school, he could move them again.

“I must be going now.  Thank you very much for your hospitality Stranger-san.  I truly feel as if a great weight has been lifted. But if I may, what made you offer such a thing in the first place?”

“You just…looked like you really needed it.”  _It’s something I once wished that someone would have done for me._

“Then I will return soon and listen to more of your troubles at a later time.”

“E-e-eh?!”  Tsuna frantically waved his hands.  “Yo-you-you don’t have to do that!”

“But it would only be the right thing to do and I must repay you for your compassion for a complete stranger.  I haven’t felt this unburdened in a good while.  I have a feeling that you know exactly what I mean don’t you?”  It was more of a statement than a question but Tsuna nodded anyways.

“We-well yeah, but I’ve got all of them an-and you…” he gestured weakly around the room.  “You’re welcome back anytime you need to just let go of things and relax for a while.  My window will always be open.”

Stranger-san merely frowned back.  “Are you sure that is wise?  I think that it can be dangerous at night.”

“Then I’ll keep it closed, but it’ll be unlocked just for you, Stranger-san.”

* * *

Tsuna did not see Stranger-san again until four weeks later on an early Saturday morning.  He didn’t look as sad as before, but there was a tightness around his eyes as if the baby was incredibly tired.

He was standing on the stone wall next to the gate of Tsuna’s house. 

“Hello Stranger-san.  Do you want to come in?”

“I’d like that very much Stranger-san.”

They had breakfast, okonomiyaki made from the leftover batter from the previous night’s dinner, and the two basked in peace that always seemed to pervade Tsuna’s room.

This time the baby didn’t say much.  He stayed quiet, watching as Tsuna carefully trimmed Little Dragon’s errant shoots and half dead leaves.

The sun was warm and the air smelled of earth and greenery and life.  A soft breeze blew in from the open window, fluttering the curtains, and kept the room from becoming stifling.  Stranger-san’s low humming had become a pleasant murmur in the background as he continued to trim and pinch his bonsai with a tiny pair of scissors.  Fon never noticed when his eyes closed. 

The baby did notice, when he woke up, that he had been tucked into the floor cushion that made his seat with part of the comforter that had previously been on the boy’s bed.  His partner curled up at his side.

He ended up leaving as the sun set, feeling very refreshed.  Both left through the window again, carrying away some sweet smelling tangerines wrapped in handkerchiefs.

* * *

“Hello, Stranger-san.”  Stranger-san was back, together with the monkey again.  Lichi chattered something in greeting and waved the two handkerchiefs that the boy had given them last time. 

“I brought some tea today.”  The baby held up a lovely green and white cloud-patterned canister, that was half his height, tied to a black lacquered box.  Balanced on his side was a shiny red thermos that was as tall as him.  Tsuna wasn’t sure how exactly had Stranger-san carried them here nor how he could get a good grip on anything through his long sleeves, but he wasn’t going to question it.  Their relationship was simply one of taking. Taking comfort from a stranger who didn’t know you.  That’s probably wasn’t quite right, but he was feeling too tired and achy to care.  The bullies had been a little rougher today.

* * *

Nana was out and so it was just the three of them again.  Fon untied the box and canister which he had set on the table in Tsuna’s room.  Now that Tsuna had a better view, he realized the black box must be fairly expensive.  The lid had an image of a gingko tree with a backdrop of tall mountains carved out mother of pearl.  Inside sat a black tea pot and several small hand-painted china cups on red silk.

“This is Baihao Yinzhen or White Hair Silver Needle.  It is a type of white tea.  The leaves have fine hairs and are plucked before they open.  The one I am preparing now is the Fuding style which has a lighter color.”

Tsuna watched and listened carefully as the baby proceeded to demonstrate his skill of tea brewing.  As he reached out for the small cup Stranger-san was handing him, Tsuna stiffened, his aching muscles pulling. 

“Are you alright?”  Stranger-san was looking at him with concern as he pulled back the cup a little.

“I-I’ll be okay.  I just fell today.  I’m clumsy so it happens all the time.  You don’t have to worry.”

Stranger-san still frowning moved closer and set the cup in front of Tsuna, eyeing the way he gingerly held his ribs.

“I thought we were here to unburden our problems to strangers.  Problems that we do not or cannot let those close to us know.”

“S-sorry.”

Tsuna picked up his cup and inhaled its scent with a soft sigh. He took a small sip and stared into the yellow liquid in surprise.

“This…is really good!”

“I’m glad you like it.”  Smiling, Stranger-san returned to his side to drink own tea.  His partner, blowing at the rim of his own tiny cup.

“I-I really did fall today.  Down some stairs.  It wasn’t far, just three or four steps, but after that people laughed at me.  I had dropped my bag too and some things spilled out.  Some of my books got kicked around an-and while I was trying to get them back, some people kicked me too.  Th-they formed a crowd and made a game out of it.”

Tsuna looked up to see the baby frowning again.  Lichi sporting a matching one as if he understood what Tsuna was saying.   The monkey was pretty smart.  He probably did, but Tsuna forged on, ignoring that thought.

“I decided to just cut class and go home after that.  There wasn’t really any point in staying.  My homework was ruined anyways and I’ll need new books now.”

“I take it that the teachers did not do anything?”

Here Tsuna gave a bitter smile. “It wouldn’t really matter.  I’m Dame-Tsu-…Dame.  Teachers like smart kids or popular ones.  As long as the bruise doesn’t show on my face, they can pretend it doesn’t happen and if my face does get injured, people can say that I just fell. I’m clumsy remember?  No one would believe me and no one’s going to stand up for someone with my reputation.  Not when I’m not someone worth anything.”

Stranger-san frown had deepened, but on his chubby face, it came out as an adorable pout.  Not that Tsuna would say that to Stranger-san’s face out loud.  It would be rude to one of the few people that actually seemed to care enough to listen.

“Perhaps a change of school can become a new start for you.”

He shook his head. “I doubt it.  Namimori isn’t a very big place.  There aren’t many that many middle schools nearby.  We can’t afford a more expensive one farther away and with my grades, the only one that might accept me would be Namimori Middle School.  It’s also the closest one so I’ll be seeing most of the same people there and they’ll be sure to tell anyone who doesn’t already know about the Dame kid.  If anyone tries to help me, it’ll be social suicide; especially since some of the kids already in middle school will definitely still remember me.”

For someone who didn’t think he was intelligent at all, he could certainly plot out his dismal future prospects very well, Fon mused to himself.  Lichi chattered something in monkey speech angrily, but Tsuna just smiled kindly and patted him on the head.

“Thank you for worrying Lichi.  But I’ll be fine.  As long as I keep my head down and don’t draw any more attention, I’ll survive.”

He then turned to Fon.

“Thank you for the tea, Stranger-san.”

Tsuna proceeded to stretch and then wince, as he got up and pulled out the colorful boxes from his bookshelves.

“Shouldn’t you tend to your own injuries?”

“They’ll be fine.  I need to check on them first.”

“You’ll need to take better care of yourself if you wish to care for others. At least let me take a look.”

Somehow, Tsuna found himself manhandled into taking off his clothes until he was down to his boxers with the baby gently pressing and prodding at his various bruises. 

“It seems like they mostly avoided your lower half and aimed for your torso and upper body.  Nothing seems to be broken, but I’ll wrap these for you.”

“Umm…thank you, Stranger-san.” Tsuna murmured softly.  He wouldn’t question how the baby could tell or how Lichi managed to expertly unroll the bandages.  That monkey seemed like he could do everything.

“You are welcome, Stranger-san.”

After Tsuna had finished caring for his own plants, he headed outside insisting that he had to work on the garden and in the greenhouse during such a crucial growing period or the next harvest would not be as bountiful as it could be.  Fon, in turn, insisted that Tsuna let him at the very least help with the physical labor even if he did not have much experience with gardening himself.  During this time, he talked about how his current employers had been rather demanding of late so he was tired from catering to their constant orders.

While Tsuna dealt with the actual weeding and culling of specific parts of the plants, Fon handed him his tools and with Tsuna’s instructions, checked the places the boy currently had trouble reaching such as the flowering squashing vines hanging above them from several intersecting wooden beams.  The ‘roof’ was supported by two wooden trellises, forming a large box-like arch.

“Those are zucchini.  Here we have kabocha; that’s my favorite.  That’s the winter melon.  Over there is the chayote squash, I like those too.  This is the Chinese okra or-“

“Silk melon right?  I recognize this one and I believe that is the flower of the Mo Qua squash.”

“Mm hmm.  You got it.”

They moved on from there into the green house where Tsuna showed him the white asparagus growing in a covered box and watercress sprouting from a shallow trough, along with several potted herbs kept there.  There were even a few fruit trees.  Two loquat trees, a tangerine tree, and a fig of all things, sat in large pots that had small wheeled platforms. 

Lichi chattered excitedly at the sight of the tangerine tree and bounded over to it, scaling the trunk nimbly.  Several round orbs, varying in size and color, hung heavily on its branches as a strong citrus smell wafted over him the closer he came.

“Lichi!” Fon scolded.  The monkey flinched and returned, looking ashamed but unable to hide the longing looks he threw the tree.

“I’m sorry about that.  He’s usually much better behaved and…”

Tsuna stopped his apologies gently but firmly.

“I take it that he enjoyed the tangerines?”

“Yes.  We both did very much.  They were delicious.  Did they come from here as well?”

“Mmm.  They did and I’m glad.”

Stranger-san has a lovely smile thought Fon.  It was warm and compassionate and completely sincere.  It was a shame that he didn’t do it more often, but then again the boy didn’t seem to have much of a reason to unless he was around his plants.  Tsuna gestured for the tiny pair to follow him. 

“Would you like some more?”

“We really couldn’t-“

“It’s alright.  It makes me happy to know that someone can enjoy fruits of my labor.”  He flushed a little as the words registered in his head.  “No pun intended.  Some of these are ready to be picked anyways.”   The brunet gazed up into the branches and circled around the base a few time.  Then he did the same for the loquat trees and the fig.

“I’ve got a few more things to take care of in here.  Then we can harvest whatever’s ready and have a few for snacks.  You can even take some to go with you.  Does that sound good?” Tsuna gave them a beautiful smile as he crouched down in front of the pair, nearly eye level with the red faced monkey sitting on the baby’s head.

As Lichi chattered his agreement excitedly, Fon revised his previous thought.  It wasn’t just a shame that the kind and gentle boy didn’t smile much.  It was a damn crime.

* * *

The seeds Tsuna had bought that day were laid out in plastic tubs.  Damp paper towels covered the bottom and a lid was placed above, sealing the tub.

“These need to germinate.  They won’t be planted until this happens.”  Tsuna shuffled through a small box he had Lichi take down from a shelf next to the door leading to the kitchen.

“Seeds need to absorb water to germinate.  I’m presoaking them to speed the process up, but if there is too much water, they can sometimes drown.”  He pulled out a folded card and placed it in front of one tray.  It had the word ‘Daikon Radish’ in thick black print.

“Some of these can take up to a week.”   ‘Carrots’ were placed in front of another.

“Others will only need a day or two.”  ‘Beets’ were next.

“We were supposed to have those planted already, but Mama and I’ve been busy trying to set up a couple new trellises and ended up forgetting about them.  I was passing by a grocery store on the way home and just remembered.”  Tsuna placed a ‘Turnips’ in front of the fourth tray.

“It’s a little late for this year, but I’ll be handling the peas in here.” He pointed towards the afore mentioned trellises sitting in a wide wooden trough.  The brunet pulled a blank card and a marker from the box. 

“I’m not sure if these will be ready in time, but I might be able to have some this year.”  The card was folded in half and ‘Sugar Snap Peas” was carefully printed onto the side in the same handwriting as the others. 

“Oh! But the muscat grapes will be ready in a few months.  I’m pretty excited.  They’re a little tricky to grow in here, but I…”  Tsuna went on and on, talking about this or that plant and how he liked bees better than wasps because they were important for the harvest.  Against the wall was a white board where Tsuna filled in the dates and types of new seeds that he had begun germinating.  With a hopeful smile on his lips and warmth and kindness shining from the brunet’s eyes, Fon found he couldn’t turn down the offer for lunch.  That and he had a feeling that his partner would be quite angry with him for a while if he did.

The baby left later that day, feeling oddly relaxed, with a promise that he would be more than happy to return and help out again. Lichi, a little more reluctantly, but he had hugged the boy, surprising the brunet and followed Fon out with what amounted to “me too!” in a series of squeaky chatter.

* * *

On his sixth visit, Fon finally met Stranger-san’s Mama and by no means was she someone to be underestimated as the baby had learned.  She had taken everything in stride, from her son’s panic anytime she would say his name aloud to the fact that a tiny, rather polite and articulate, baby was helping her garden, carrying a bag of manure that had to be at least three times his weight.  Even Lichi didn’t faze her beyond her exclamations of how cute the monkey was.

She stuck with ‘Tsu-kun’ and ‘Stranger-chan’ the entire time and before Fon knew it, he had stayed for dinner and shared a bath with the boy whose nickname was politely ignored along with the fact that Sawada was engraved on a metal plaque outside the house gate.  Not even the fact that the males continued to refer to each other as ‘Stranger-san’ miffed her for long and she insisted that she be called ‘Mama’.

Still, while the boy had settled down to attempt to do his homework; Nana had gotten him alone for a talk. She was sorting out some of her son’s old clothes for Fon, after wrangling out a promise from the baby that he would stay since it was so late. 

He could still leave, but he’d prefer to leave the house with his clothes.  Nana had taken them to be washed during the bath where he and Lichi had soaked with the boy.  He wasn’t sure if this was the deliberate act of a cunning woman or the same unquestioning kindness that her son seemed to have inherited.

“I’ll have your clothes dried by tomorrow.  What do you think of this one, Stranger-chan?”  She held up a tiny red t-shirt with a faded image of Doraemon posing in the front.  Fon was standing in a tiny undershirt and shorts, his long hair still damp and unbound like a dark waterfall spilling out behind him.  He reached out to feel the material.

“It is very soft.”

“This was one of Tsu-kun’s favorites when he was two.  He was such an adorable, tiny thing back then.  I didn’t have the heart to get rid of most of his old things and lucky for me, they’re coming in handy now.”

She watched in silence as Fon put on the shirt, flicking his hair out from under the collar.  The sleeves weren’t long enough to completely cover his hands, so his tiny fists could be seen whenever he moved his arms.  The shirt itself reached down to his ankles though.

“Thank you.  I can see where Stranger-san gets his generosity from.”

“No, no, Stranger-chan! I should be the one saying that.”

“Hmm?” He looked at her curiously.

“My Tsu-kun has always a sweet and gentle boy.  He used to smile and laugh all the time.  Even when he hurt himself from his clumsiness, he would be back up and running around with a grin soon enough.  Sometimes I wonder if I should have ever let him go to school though…”  She was looking far away with a sad smile.

“It started out as little things here and there.  He would come home with new scrapes and bruises.  He became quieter and quieter, the smiles grew smaller and less frequent and he stopped laughing completely.”  She pursed her lips.

“But not once did that boy ever complain nor would he tell me what was wrong.  I’m not deaf or blind though.  My ears and eyes work perfectly fine.  I can hear what the other people say about my son and I can see what they do to him.  Yet, he continues to smile and hide away his pain, because he doesn’t want me to worry.”

“Then one day, he came home soaked to the bone hugging a tiny sick rose bush.  He treated that bush as if it was his best friends and obsessively cared for it like it would just get up and walk away if he didn’t give it his utter devotion.  From there, his little garden just grew and grew and the only thing Tsu-kun will spill his troubles to are things that can’t tell me just how hurt he really is.”  Nana’s voice became more animated the longer she went on.

“However, there is a big difference between a plant and a human being.  He has been a little happier since he met you.  Oh don’t look at me like that.  He didn’t breathe a word about you, but I’m his mother.  There are some things I just know no matter how hard he tries to hide it and I can put two and two together to get four.  Tsu-kun is probably afraid that you will leave or tell me things, but you can reassure him that you won’t.  Unless it’s truly life threatening or an emergency, I’ll ask that you keep what he tells you to yourself.  After all, strangers are just that.  They don’t know anything about you, so you can talk to them and odds are it wouldn’t matter because you’re both just strangers having a chat over a cup of tea.”

Something about that didn’t seem to come out right, but the message did get across as Fon continued to stare at her. “You are truly a remarkable woman, Sawada-san.”

“Now, now.” She chided. “Haven’t I told you to call me Mama?”

* * *

Lichi was being offered more food by Nana in the kitchen and the baby idly wondered if his partner would still be able to move for much longer.  Both Sawadas seemed intent on stuffing the pair, but only Lichi had apparently unleashed his inner glutton.  Or maybe it was Stranger-san’s tangerines?  They really were amazing.  Sweet and juicy with just the right amount of tartness. 

The boy had possessed some inner sense that allowed him to pick out exactly which ones weren’t quite ready even if they looked no different from the ones that were.  His movements were swift and sure as he expertly plucked or twisted his chosen fruits with deft movements, directing Fon and Lichi to the ones he couldn’t reach.

Shaking his head from the memory, Fon headed back to Tsuna’s room where the door was kept open by a crack.  He could see Tsuna at the small floor table, his back facing the door.  Tsuna was checking over a book.  On the table was a stack of colorful hard-back books.  As Fon moved closer, he realized that the book the boy was poring over was actually a journal.  In fact, they were all journals.

Tsuna, engrossed in his writing, didn’t notice the baby standing in front of him until he looked up. 

“Stra-stranger-san!” the boy yelped clutching the green journal to his chest.

Fon noticed the engraved words ‘Dairy of’ above a light green box on the cover.  ‘Lightning’ had been filled into the box with a black marker.

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing your homework?”

The boy flushed guiltily.

“Y-yeah, but I wanted to finish these first.  My homework’s going to take a while and I don’t want to forget…well.” 

“What are these?”

“Everyone’s diaries.” He waved a hand to his plants. “I record their growth and things that happen to them or involve them in some way.  Here.”

He took the top dairy from the stack and opened it to the beginning.  The date and time were written at the top.  A picture of the bonsai, Little Dragon, was glued to the top half of the page.  The pot was different though.  It was even shallower than the current pot and had a teal-colored oval shape.  Under it was a description of the type of plant and basic care that would be needed for it.  The next page was where the he found something a little more interesting.

_‘Today, I was walking home from school (on a different route since those guys decided to chase me a little farther today) when I saw smoke coming from someone’s house.  Somebody had thrown a cigarette into some dried grass nearby and it started a fire.  The fire climbed up and burned part of the house.  I went to get the neighbors…’_

As the baby continued to read on, Tsuna decided to finish filling in Lightning’s weekly growth and how a wasp had flown into his room the other day and caught a fly that had been sitting on the rim of Lightning’s pot.  It traumatized Tsuna a bit, but he couldn’t look away for fear of losing sight the wasp and having the possibility that it would hide somewhere in his room.  It eventually flew out the window, leaving the fly behind.  Tsuna snatched a handful of tissues and hurriedly squished the fly, trying not to think about his mercy kill as he flushed the mess down the toilet.

_‘…small.  The only one to be touched by the fire(burning debris) and it…’_

Tsuna decided to finally start on his homework.  The baby seemed to be really into the dairy entries.  Maybe he was getting interested in plants too?  That would be nice if he did.

_‘…main trunk was badly damaged.  The only part that Hibiki-san said could be salvaged was a single branch.  Hibiki-san offered a different one, but this young tree still had a chance to carry on and I wanted to make sure that it had that chance.  So Hibiki agreed to show me how to make that branch into a cutting and…’_

He gently placed the green book on top of the stack and headed back to his desk.

_‘…Hibiki-san turned the cutting into a new bonsai. I took the main plant home though.  No matter how much he insisted that it was better to let it go instead of wasting my time, I couldn’t.  If even an expert bonsai handler like Hibiki-san didn’t give it a chance, who would?  So I…”_

Math.  Tsuna decided that he would try working on that last. 

_‘…new leaves.  Hibiki-san said it was a miracle and that I didn’t just have a green thumb.  I had a green heart.  It was a little strange and I still don’t quite understand what he meant, but it may be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.  This is the first time someone other than Mama has given me a compliment.  It was a very nice feeling…’_

At least he was somewhat decent in science.  They were going over plants this week and while he still sucked at the topic in general, at least he had a chance to get above a 40 on this upcoming quiz.

_‘…started teaching me about how to create and care for bonsai.  It turns out lots of things can ‘burn’ a plant.  Everything from harsh sunlight to too much fertilizer, but as long as…’_

He actually knew this!  Take that biology!  He might even as high as a 60 next Friday!

_‘…bought me a new pot.  It’s deeper and made out of ceramic.  Hibiki-san says it’s stoneware.  That means it’s been fired at a higher temperature and less likely to crack in the cold.  Not that I’ll let it get that cold in here, but it was…’_

He had finished and was working on the math worksheet his teacher had given them.  Aikawa-sensei might teach his least favorite subject, but she was his favorite teacher.  She always gave the least homework due to her laziness and never called on him like some of the others did knowing that he would most likely get the answer wrong. 

_‘…gone.  The rest of his bonsai are being split up by his children.  Apparently, they’re worth a lot of money.  Especially the big ones.  He left me some things too.  He already gave me his time and his company.  And Little Dragon of course.  He had already given me so much.  All his notes had been passed down to me over the time I’ve known him.  Lots of books too.  I think his relatives didn’t actually follow through with the will completely (some didn’t look so happy to see a stranger getting his things and some looked a little shady with fake smiles and loud voices), but Hibiki-san had already made me take home the ones that he thought were the most useful anyways.  I still miss him even though...’_

Fon blinked as he finished the last entry.  He stretched and carefully closed the book, placing it to the side.  That wasn’t exactly what he had been expecting from a plant’s diary.  Yes, there were charts and growth measurements and pictures of the tree, but really, it was like reading Stranger-san’s journal instead. 

He felt a little guilty as he noticed that the boy was scratching his head over a problem, but he gently removed the green journal from the top of the stack, idly noting the number ‘3’ on the spine, and cracked it open to a random page.

_‘…first new blooms since…2.7 cm longer and 9 more petals than last...’_

This was just a growth chart.  He flipped to the latest entry.

_‘…wasp.  It was scary.  I sat watching as it laid its eggs into the fly…squished it.  I feel bad, but…’_

He closed it and placed it on top of Little Dragon’s diary and pulled down the purple journal next.  There was a ‘2’ on the side written in black permanent marker.

_‘…trying so hard to grow in a place like that.  I decided to help it and brought…’_

As he suspected.  These weren’t just recordings of the plant’s growth.  These were Stranger-san’s personal experiences scattered over time across several different books.  And he had just offered to let Fon read them without a care.  He wondered if the boy realized that he was actually putting down his own thoughts and feelings into written form.  Probably not.  Fon replaced the journals onto the stack and hopped over to the desk.

Half the problems on the sheet were filled out and over half of those were wrong.

“Would you like some help?’

“St-stran-stranger-san!”  The boy yelped in surprise and tumbled out of his chair.

“Are you alright?”  Fon peered down at the fallen child in surprise.  He had never seen anyone have such a spectacular fall from such a stable position. Except maybe Skull, but in his defense, usually Reborn or Colonello had something to do with that.

“Uh-uhm…yeah.”  He flushed in embarrassment as he righted his chair. “Sorry you had to see that.”

“No worries, but I couldn’t help but notice that you seem to be having trouble.  Would you like me to check over your work for you?”

“You-you’d do that?”  _‘For me?’_ went unspoken, but Fon could hear it anyways.

“Of course.  It would be no trouble at all.”

“I have to warn you.  I’m really slow.  It could take a lot of time.”

“And I have plenty of patience.”

* * *

Nana came in around 10:30, just as Tsuna finished the last problem.  Lichi perched on her shoulder stomach distended from the amount of food he had spent the last hour sampling.

“Oh how nice of you! Helping my Tsu-kun with his homework.”

The two looked up and stared at the large basket she was carrying. 

“Stranger-chan!  I’ve brought your bed.”

“Mama, what…?”

* * *

The large woven basket was a dark brown color and filled with several layers of folded towels. A firm flat cushion was on top and a tiny pillow was placed on one end. The blanket that was neatly folded on top was white with pastel circus animals parading around the edges. More of Tsuna’s baby things, but like the T-shirt Fon was currently wearing, they were all soft and clean.

“Good night Storm. Good night Sun. Good night Mist. Good night Cloud. Good night Lightning. Good night Little Dragon.”

The air still smelled of earth and whatever unique scent each plant gave out and the same sense of tranquility that always filled the room seemed to have strengthened.

“Good night Stranger-san. Good night Lichi.”

The basket had been placed on the desk next to Little Dragon. His host turned off the lights after making sure that Fon and his partner had been settled in comfortably first.

“Good night Stranger-san.”

That night, Fon dreamed of I-Pin. He dreamed that she was sitting next to him in Little Dragon’s pot and telling him that she was fine and happy to see him again. That he should not feel bad for her because it wasn’t his fault. Then she settled down to sleep on a bed of dirt and moss surrounded by shiny white pebbles. By sunrise, the dream had almost been forgotten, but the feeling of relief and acceptance continued to accompany him even after he left.

Fon found that he was not adverse to the idea of spending the night again sometime in the future.

* * *

Visits from Stranger-san, sporadic as they were, became more and more frequent.  To the point that his basket-bed and a box of clothes had their own spot in Tsuna’s closet.  Canisters of high grade teas appeared in the pantries and the lacquered box of the finely made tea pot and cups had a place next to Little Dragon on Tsuna’s desk.  More than a few recipe books on Chinese cuisine found their way to Nana’s shelves and tiny china doll dishes purchased for them could be seen stacked next to the larger ones that the Sawadas used.

The baby and monkey would seamlessly slide in and out of the lives of the mother and son, bringing presents from wherever they had been and helping out around the gardening, household chores, homework, or whatever else needed to be done.  It became a new norm for the Sawada household; a little livelier, but not necessarily noisier. At least until the girls came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I failed with Fon’s character. OTL Fon mentions that Hibari and he were related somehow, but Hibari didn’t like people knowing about it, so here they are first-cousins with a really large age gap. It’s entirely possible because there’s over a 40 year gap between some of mine. 
> 
> We now have how I-Pin died and Fon’s guilt and some sort of relief over it. Hibiki’s role is pretty much over. His only purpose was to be nice, give Tsuna I-Pin and a reason to talk to Fon, and die.
> 
> Please ignore that fact that some of these plants are either growing out of season or in a wrong environment/climate. It’s Tsuna’s magical plant powers.
> 
> Some wasps lay their eggs in a host which dies once the larvae hatches and emerges from the host’s body as an adult wasp. I think a quick death would be more preferable to being eaten alive by a parasite and dying when your body can no longer contain it.


	3. In Which the Garden Provides Solace

“Alright! Listen up everybody!”  Ina-sensei called her class to attention with a loud clap.  “This is the final project for this subject for this year.  It’s a group project and members will be picked out of this box.  We’ve got twenty-four people, so there will be eight groups. No one and I mean _no one_ is going to be allowed to switch members unless there are extre-extenuating circumstances.” 

She winced internally having caught that word before it could fully manifest and changed it as she noticed one of her students flinch.  Sighing, she shook the shoebox once more and opened it.

“Group One! Haga Manabu.  Fujita Seiji.  Ibu Takumi.  Group Two! Higuchi Chika. Harada Junko…”

It went on and on until Tsuna was one of the last kids left. Even in a random drawing, it seemed that Tsuna would still be picked last.

“Group Eight! Sasagawa Kyoko.  Kurokawa Hana.  And Sawada Tsunayoshi.”

 “Sensei! That’s not fair!  How are Kyoko-chan and Hana-chan supposed to pass with Dame-Tsuna on their team!”

“Yeah! You should at least give them extra credit!”

As the jeers and complaints continued to grow louder and louder, Tsuna sunk further and further down into his chair.  He bit his bottom lip as he noticed the considering look in his teacher’s eyes.  After that sight, he couldn’t bring himself to look at either of his new partners.

“Quiet! These teams are final.  Each group has to pick a topic or chapter that we’ve gone over this year. Your choice must be submitted for approval this Friday.  Once they’ve been approved, each group will receive a packet with the requirements for the presentation you will do on it.”

* * *

It was a quiet walk to Tsuna’s house.  He was cautious and made sure that no other people from there school were following his group as he led them to the Sawada residence.

“What’s with you?”

“No-nothing.”

Even as he spoke, he kept glancing around to make sure that no one would decide that he needed a warning against doing anything to the girl everyone felt pity for. 

Kyoko, walking to his right with Hana in between them, was a quiet girl with a gentle smile that rarely reached her eyes.  He had heard rumors that her older brother had died in a fight and unfortunately, she had been the first person to come across his body.  Still, the girl was one of the few people who would give him a smile, even if it was always so fragile that it seemed like a breeze could blow it off her face, and never picked on him. 

Hana, her best friend, had picked up the nickname of ‘The Castle Wall’ for her protective nature to the once cheerful girl.  She was forever at Kyoko’s side, preventing anyone she deemed unworthy from approaching.  Her sharp tongue was like barbed wire while her intimidatingly aggressive stances were like landmines and trenches.

Kyoko didn’t like silence.  Her house was too quiet with parents who had both thrown themselves headlong into work to take their minds off the death of their first child and the absence of the noise that her brother once brought made it seem all the more nerve wracking.  Hana’s home, on the other hand, was right above the flower shop that her family owned.  She wouldn’t have time to discuss things with them, because her parents would put her to work right away.  So that left Tsuna’s house as the only place they could go.  Despite his initial protests, Hana had overridden him and as Tsuna didn’t feel entirely too threatened by either girl, he finally gave in despite his extreme reluctance.

The awkward silence that surrounded the trio became too much for the orange haired girl and unsurprisingly, to Hana, Kyoko was the first to initiate a conversation.

“Umm…Tsuna-kun?”

“Ye-yes?”  Tsuna was still clearly jumpy about something.

“Are you alright?”

“I-I-I…”  He flailed a little but in the end sighed as his shoulders slumped.   “No one from school has ever been to my house.  I…I’d rather keep it that way.”

“Why?”  asked Kyoko.  Hana raised a brow.  She had a good idea why.  If she had been treated the way Sawada was, she’d try to keep away others from the only safe haven that she had too.  However, she was the daughter of a florist and she had heard about the miraculous garden that the Sawada’s had.  She wanted to see this so called miracle for herself.

Tsuna clammed up, screwing his face into what she believed was a frustrated grimace even if it came out looking kind of adorable.  Like a kitten that had been chasing a butterfly only to realize that it was too far out of reach.

“I’m Dame-Tsuna.”  That didn’t explain a thing, but in a way.  It explained everything.

Sawada was clearly a paranoid child.  She knew that people picked on him at school, but was it really that bad?

* * *

“I’m home.”  As soon as the door had closed behind her, Sawada’s voice seemed to regain more confidence even if it was no louder than before.

“Welcome home Tsu-kun! Oh? Oh! You’ve brought friends!”

Nana’s eyes sparkled and she practically beamed at them.  Before they could register anything other than her blinding smile, she had swept all three into the kitchen and settled them around a table full of food.

“Tsu-kun.  You should have called ahead and let me know that you were bringing such lovely girls home.  I would have prepared more snacks if I had known.”

Hana twitched, staring at the snack-laden table in front of them.  What. The. Hell.  How the hell…  The table was completely empty when they had been ushered into the wooden chairs around it, but somehow Sawada’s mother had placed an entire spread fit to feed twice the number of people in the household in five minutes and was now worried about not having enough.

By her side, even Kyoko was looking a little wide eyed.

Tsuna wasn’t fazed-or even aware that this was not normal-and nervously introduced them.

“Mama.  This is Kurokawa Hana and Sasagawa Kyoko.  They-they aren’t really friends.  They’re just here to work on a class project.”  He carefully didn’t look at either girl, but Nana was not to be deterred.

“Well this is a good time as any to make some!  Why don’t we all eat first and tell each other a little about ourselves.  After this, you can all work on your project in Tsu-kun’s room.”

Tsuna’s head jerked up, caramel eyes wide with a sort of shocked terror.

“Bu-but Mama…why can’t we do it down here?”

“Because Mama will be busy and I wouldn’t want to disturb you.  Now eat up.  You’ll need plenty of energy to work hard.”

* * *

Miserable but unsurprised, Tsuna ended up in front of his bedroom door, biting his lip in nervousness as he put his hand on the handle.

“Well?  Aren’t you going to open it?  If you’re embarrassed about it being a pigsty, don’t worry.   I doubt that it could be any worse than my cousin’s room.”

Vaguely, some part of Tsuna understood that this was Hana’s way of trying to reassure him which was unexpectedly nice of her, but he still hesitated at the thought of letting either one join the small number of people who had ever seen the greatest joys of his life.  With a resigned sigh, he turned the handle and pushed open the door. 

Kyoko gasped in surprise as Hana’s eyes methodically latched on to each plant, cataloging and comparing them to the wares of her family’s shop.  She stayed at the doorway and watched as Tsuna set down his backpack and turned back to face them bowing apologetically.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to start without me.  This is the time that I usually spend caring for them,” he waved a hand around his room “and it won’t be done for a while.  After that I need to help out there while there’s still daylight.” 

The girls stepped up to the window and Hana sucked in her breath.  Below was a garden bursting with life.  It was almost wild looking, as if the entire space had been crammed with anything green and if it wasn’t for the half hidden dirt paths and types of plants she could see growing, she would have thought that it was an abandoned secret garden like something out of a fairy tale.

“Tsuna-kun!  This-This is amazing!”

“Isn’t it?”

Everyone turned to see Nana standing at the doorway with a smile.

“Will you two be able to stay for dinner?  I’m sorry, but Tsu-kun is right.  I had forgotten, but I do need his help today otherwise we’ll be absolutely overwhelmed tomorrow.  It’s a bit of a race to keep ahead during this time.  Everything just grows so quickly.”

Kyoko thought about her parents who were both out of town for work and her empty, quiet-far _far_ too quiet-home. Hana thought about how her father would berate her for not using every opportunity she could to find out the Sawada matriarch’s gardening secrets and how her mother would do the same if she couldn’t secure some of the famed ‘Sawada Harvest’ produce for their family.  It was a no brainer. 

“We’ll stay.  Thank you for your invitation.  We haven’t even decided on a project topic yet though.  Today was just for brainstorming.”

“Ah. Well, Tsu-kun is very good with plants.  Perhaps something along those lines will be of use to you.”

At his mother’s nickname, the females in the room all turned to look at the brunet who had started tending to the bright red rose bush upon their distraction.  Upon noticing their attention on him, the boy seemed half torn between hiding behind his plant-which was large enough to completely cover him if he curled up-or shielding it from their view.

In the end he nodded stiffly and fled out of his room to fill his watering pail.

“You are welcome to talk while we work.  But Tsu-kun won’t be ready for about half an hour.  He always takes care of these first and the rest of the day is spent in the garden and greenhouse.”

“These are Tsuna-kun’s plants?”

“Mmm. Yes.  Each and every one of the plants in this room are only alive today because of my son.  No one else touches them.  Not even I do.  He’s quite protective.  To the point that he sometimes doesn’t even take the time to eat before he goes back to tending them.  If we didn’t have the garden outside, he would most likely just shut himself in here for the rest of his life.”  She sighed.  “It’s good that more people are coming now.  Tsu-kun really needs friends that can talk to him, but he’s so shy.”

 _‘I wouldn’t want to talk to anyone either if they all treated me like the way they do to him,’_ Hana thought to herself.

There wasn’t much to say, so Hana pulled out a notebook and a pen.  “We can make our plans anywhere.  We don’t have to work here.”

“Hmm.  Alright.  You can talk to him while we work in the garden outside.  I should warn you though.  Tsu-kun is very sensitive when it comes to anything under his care.”

* * *

“Tsuna-kun?”

“…”

“Hey.  She’s talking to you.”

Tsuna didn’t jump.  Didn’t respond.  It was almost unnerving the way the small boy was so focused on the red rose bush. 

Another minute passed before Tsuna sat up and sighed.

“Tsuna-kun?”

“Hmm?”  He blinked, eyes coming back into focus and stiffened again as if he realized that he wasn’t alone in his room.

“Did you raise all of these yourself?”

“Ah-ahhh…yeah.”  The gentle affectionate smile that Tsuna only showed in the sanctuary of his home morphed his countenance into one of peace and love.  Idly, Hana noted that if he made that face at school, he’d probably be a lot more popular.  “They are everything to me.  I don’t know what I’d do if anything ever happened to them.”

“You know?  I think that if you were to talk to so-“

“No!” Wide eyed, Tsuna was suddenly shielding the closest plant from her, which was the rose that he was just tending.  “Please.  Don’t.  Don’t say anything.  Tell them my room is messy.  Tell them I’m a pig.  Tell them that I’m useless.  But never, ever even breathe a word about them to _anyone_.”

“But why…?”

Instantly, Hana got it.

“Because all the boys around our age are monkeys.  He’s already got a bad rep.  If they find out that not only does he like flowers, but is actually good at it, he’s also going to be picked on even more for liking ‘girly’ things.”

 “…”

“But I’m sure-“

“Kyoko.” 

The girl instantly shut her mouth at Hana’s serious tone. _‘Later.’_ Mouthed Hana.

Kyoko glanced over the where the boy was obsessively checking the soil, doing his best to pretend that he was part of the scenery in his own room.

 _‘Okay.’_ She nodded and decided to concentrate on the project.

* * *

It was Friday afternoon and the only group that had yet to submit a topic sheet was Team Eight.  Oh wait.  Here it is.  Ina-sensei raised a brow. 

**Chapter 12: The Diversity of Plant Life**

**Topic Choices:**

  1. **‘The Life Cycle of Flowering Plants’**
  2. **‘Hormonal and Nutritional Effects on Flowers’**
  3. **‘Decorations Aside, Other Uses for Flowers’**



It made sense.  Kurokawa’s family owned a flower shop after all.  Considering who they had, the group would need every edge they could get.  Not to mention Kurokawa had a fairly sharp mind and inclination for money.  She wouldn’t put it past the girl to use this project as free advertisement for her family business.  Ina had gone to middle and high school with the younger sister of Hana’s mother after all.  Their money loving ways ran in the family.

 “Team Eight.  I want to talk to you after class.”

* * *

The last bell had rung and Tsuna stayed behind with the two girls. 

 “First off. Your topic choices have all been approved.  It’s just a matter of picking one. Secondly, extra-credit will be given for outstanding work only.  However, I won’t be curving grades.  I don’t think your group will need that curve though.”

At the confusion on her students’ faces, she reached into a large tote bag and pulled out a folder.  Flipping through it, she pulled out three sheets and handed them to their respective takers.

“I haven’t given back your quizzes yet, but they’ve all been graded.  I guess I can let you three take a sneak peek.”

Tsuna eyes grew wide as he stared at the large 80 circled in bright red at the top of the page.

“I’ve noticed that there has been a marked improvement over the last few months in your grades.  Do you have someone that’s been helping-Sawada-kun? Sawada-kun? Are you alright?”

The poor boy looked like he was about to begin hyperventilate. 

“I-I-I-Is thi-this fo-for real?”  The last bit came out as a squeak.  “I-i-it’s n-not a mis-mistake right?” His eyes looked both hopeful and terrified at the same time.  As if he was waiting for someone to tell him that this was just a cruel joke and that he really was as no good as everyone called him. 

“No.  It’s not.”  The trembling boy reminded her of a small animal that she had once seen on a nature documentary.  Sawada always seemed to be preoccupied with surviving. He kept his head down and tried not to draw attention to himself from larger creatures. 

He clutched his quiz like it was his lifeline and looked up to her with wide wide eyes.  She had never really had the urge to hug cute things, but dammit, Sawada was making her want to cuddle the life out of that boy.

Then he gave a sad sad smile.  It gave her a bad feeling.  “I-I’m really happy.  Tha-thank you Ina-sensei, for letting me see this early. Can I ask for a favor though?”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Can you take about forty points off?”

“What.”  It was a flat statement that came from the Hana. “What the hell Sawada.”

Their teacher was too shocked at the request to reprimand her student, but Hana’s words summed up her thoughts perfectly.

“Why?” This time it was Kyoko who asked.

“There’s a lot of work to be done. Mama’s going to need all the help she can get and I can’t afford to have anything take away from that.”

“Help with what? How’s failing a quiz going to help your mother?”

Ina-sensei had an uneasy feeling at the gentle expression on Sawada’s face.  It was a resigned mature look that shouldn’t be on such a young kid shouldn’t be making.

“Mama has a big garden that needs constant maintenance.  She’s a hard worker, but she’s still only one person. I do what I can to help out.”

Ina recalled Sawada Nana from the last parent-teacher meeting.  A cheerful, somewhat ditzy brunette that had the most amazing vegetable garden on this side of Namimori or so the rumor mill went.  She had a huge harvest every year and quite a bit of it was sold to a local grocery store that actually had a section for her produce alone.  It cost quite a bit more, but no one could deny that it wasn’t worth it.  Ina herself had managed to snag some cucumbers and cherry tomatoes last summer.  She had been quickly converted to the ‘Sawada Harvest’ ever since.

“Ina-sensei. Please.” He pleaded.  “If I get such a high score, it’s going to look unnatural.” 

Unatural?  The bad feeling was growing.

“Don’t be silly Sawada.  You’ve obviously been working hard and your effort has paid off.”

“They’ll assume that I cheated or that you’re giving me special treatment.” He gave a mirthless smile. “I doubt the principal will say anything, but you’ll definitely get some flak for this.  Not just from the students, but from your colleagues as well.”

Was Sawada always this articulate?  Come to think of it, Ina had never heard him actually talk aside from when he was called to answer a question.

“At first, they’re going to question you and your judgment.  They’ll want to see what kind of quiz you’ve given.  If it had been a multiple choice one, they could pass it off as me being lucky for once, but here it’s clearly a fill in the blank and short answer one.  Then they’re going to want to know how you managed to get me to actually learn something.  You, this class and your teaching methods will be under close scrutiny for a while.  Once they’ve figured out that nothing has changed, you’ll be accused of padding my grade or coaching me beforehand.  Maybe even letting me see the answer key.  It’ll look bad, but don’t worry.  Most will believe that the real reason is because you were trying to make sure that I would be able to pass your class.  Once I’m in middle school, I’ll be someone else’s problem, so you were only doing your best to get rid of the one dragging the class average down.”

The certainty in his tone chilled her. 

“Don’t worry.  Most of them are already doing it.  In fact, Matsumura-sensei will probably be the first to confront you about this and admit it in public.  Inahara-sensei and Chino-sensei will probably admit it too after they hear him say it.  It’s Minami-sensei that will tell you first.  In private though.  Most likely in an empty bathroom or a secluded class.”

Everything actually sounded plausible, but this was just absurd.  It was surprising yes, but maybe he was just a really, really late bloomer.

“I, on the other hand, will be accused of cheating, sucking up, and bribery.  The other kids…”

He was giving her such a resigned, accepting look now. 

“I can see that you don’t want to believe me, but there is a bright side to this.  The one thing about being known as Dame-Tsuna is that no one tries to force me to do their homework for them.  If you won’t change my grade, then would you please wait until next Friday?  Most of the manual labor should be done by then.”

“Sawada-kun…why?” The question came out as a breathy whisper.

“Because.”  Sawada looked her straight in the eyes.  Sad, resigned and oh so heartbreakingly accepting with the most beautifully tragic smile she had ever witnessed.

“I am Dame-Tsuna.”

* * *

The next few days passed the same way and Tsuna, while still skittish around them, slowly began to open up.  Kyoko and Hana were treated with the same lighthearted, but generous hospitality that had been shown to all guests of the household and they stayed longer and longer each time.

Just when they were starting to settle into a routine, Tsuna broke it the same way he broke their conceptions of him.  Abruptly startling with a dose of unpleasant realizations for good measure.

It was then that the girls noticed that he wasn’t taking them straight to his home.   They had been walking for about twenty minutes now and were passing through an older worn out neighborhood that Hana was pretty sure was to the west of his house.  She had passed him on the way to school plenty of times and she was pretty sure that she had never crossed this place before.

“Sawada.  Where are you taking us?”

“To my home.”

“How much longer is this going to take?”

 “About thirty to forty more minutes.”

Hana stopped.  “What?!  Why are you doing this?  Do you really not want us to go to your house that mu-mph!”

Tsuna quickly covered her mouth and tugged her with him behind a copse of trees.  They were growing close to a fence with a place in between them just big enough for small adults to squeeze through.  He gestured for Kyoko to follow and led them to a large bush where he quickly pushed aside some branches to expose a hole.  The fence was old and the hole looked like it had rotted away instead of being intentionally made.  They could see more bushes on the other side, but Tsuna pushed them to the side and waved them towards it. 

“C’mon!” He hissed as loudly as he dared.  “Hurry!”

“No. I’m not going until you explain what’s going on.”  Something in his urgent tone must have convinced Kyoko though, because she was already on her hands and knees crawling through. “Kyoko! What are you-“

“Shh!  Kurokawa-san. Please.”  Tsuna pleaded.  His eyes wide and worried and she was pretty sure that it would akin to animal cruelty if she didn’t go along with his desire at the moment.  His scared kitten face tugged at the depths of her heart no matter how hard she tried to squash it down.  She may not like kids or most of the male race, but she had nothing against cats.  Even liked them for their usefulness in thwarting rodents.

“Fine. But you better explain yourself after this.”  With that, she crawled through too. Tsuna followed, settling beside her after he made sure that no trace of their passage could be seen.

“Now what?”

Not saying a word, he beckoned them to follow him across the overgrown yard.  The place was an old fashioned abandoned house and for a moment, Hana wondered why this place hadn’t been bought out. 

Then she didn’t have time to wonder as she tried her best to keep up with the surprisingly fast brunet. 

They circled around the house where bushes in serious need of a trimming crowded along the fence with a few trees thrown in for measure.  Tsuna approached a particularly large one and froze in the realization that his usual spot was too small for all three of them.

Gazing around the abandoned compound, he thought carefully before coming to a decision. 

“In here.”  He pushed aside a bush to reveal a hollow space between it and the tree.

“Sawada.”

“Don’t make any noise and don’t leave until I tell you it’s safe to come out.”

Before they knew it, branches and leaves were shielding their view and Tsuna was gone.  Exchanging uneasy glances, the girls huddled together.

“Hey!  Anyone seen Dame-Tsuna?”

“I saw that stupid hair of his earlier.”

“Yeah.  It’s stupid alright. Hey! How about we help him with that? You know make it less stupid.  I got some scissors.”

“Oh! I got some glue.” *Snicker* “And the nail polish and lipstick my sister was throwing out be it was _‘so last season’_ in her words.”

“Hahaha.  That’s a good one.  He oughta be thankful that we’re going out of our way to make him live up or _down_ to his name.”

“So thankful that it would be impolite to refuse his thank you gifts.”

“Like his lunch money?”

“Nah.  More like his bento.  Dame-Tsuna might be worthless but his mom’s cooking sure isn’t.”

“It’s really that good?”

“Oh yeah!” a third voice chimed in. “It’s great.  Better than Morimoto’s mom’s food and you know how awesome that is.”

Their voices periodically interspersed with mocking laughter trailed away and what seemed like an eternity later, Tsuna’s somber, but thankfully unharmed face came into view.

“Tsuna-kun.  What was…”  Kyoko trailed off as she helplessly gestured back to where the voices had come from.

The boy tilted his head as he sought to place them from memory.

“Some of our classmates.  I think that was all of Group One, Five, and Ibu’s brother from the year above us and Kisamura’s brother from the year below.  He’s really big for his size and good at looking scary so they let him tag along.”

Hana opened her mouth, realized that she couldn’t speak, then closed it as she sucked in deep breaths in a desperate attempt to control her temper so that she wouldn’t start shouting and give away their position.  It also helped to push down the sick sick feeling in her stomach and unblock her tight throat.

“How long?” she bit out.

Tsuna had the gall to look afraid and confused and Hana wasn’t sure who she wanted to punch more.  Him for being so pitiful, those boys for being such monkeys, or herself for not knowing how bad Tsuna’s situation really was.  She noticed Kyoko’s especially pale sweating face and ruthlessly shoved aside her other thoughts.

Kyoko came first above all else.  They had to get out of here before she had a panic attack or worse a complete meltdown.

“Let’s go back to your house.”

Tsuna opened his mouth.

“Shut up.  Kyoko needs someplace where people won’t pry and your place is the only one that fits the bill.  Can you get us there without being caught?”

Tsuna eyed them both cautiously, but Kyoko’s wan face seemed to force a dramatic change over him and Hana nearly did a double take. 

“I can.”

There was no hesitation in his voice or stance whatsoever. It was like she was looking at a completely different person.  She didn’t have much time to ponder though as Tsuna was methodically checking to see if they were in the clear.  Then they were heading back and she had other things to worry about.

* * *

Nana wasn’t home and Hana was absurdly grateful that there was one less person to witness this.  It seemed like Kyoko had regained a little color but she was still withdrawn and had not said a word since she had been seated by the little square table in Tsuna’s room. 

Tsuna set some tea filled mugs down in front of them.  The scent was wonderful and she’d probably be able to catalogue it if she was in a better state of mind, but no one was in a mood to appreciate it so they sat there sipping in silence until surprisingly, Tsuna himself broke it.

“It…this started when I was about eight.”

Hana blinked, then remembered her earlier question from before that tense run back to the Sawada house.

Eight…Sawada was twelve right now.

“That’s four years.”

Four unbelievably sad years of being the school’s whipping boy.

“As far back as I can remember…I was always alone, ever since I started Kindergarten. Then when I was eight, people started to take notice.  It wasn’t so bad at first. Just some name calling and shoving.  Things like people dropping their pencils and markers on purpose and asking me to get it.  Then it became the… **cool** thing to do.  The **in** thing and things got worse. 

‘Who can make Dame-Tsuna scream the loudest by putting the worst things in his desk or his backpack.’  ‘Who can hit Dame-Tsuna the most in dodgeball.’ “Who can shoot the most spitballs at Dame-Tsuna’s head before class is over.’ ‘Who can hit Dame-Tsuna hard enough to cry first.’  ‘Who can steal Dame-Tsuna’s things and make him pay to get them back.’  That’s the sort of thing that happened.”

On one hand, Tsuna’s account of his disturbing daily life had managed draw Kyoko out of her funk.  On the other hand…Hana wanted to scream.  Wanted to throw her cooling tea at him.  Wanted to hurl this mug with the lovely gladiolus painting at him hard enough to shatter.  Anything to sweep the chill from her bones and that sick sick urge to hurl from the bottom of her stomach.  The worst part was that she had a feeling that he’d simply sit there and take it and then offer her another mug of tea without ire or thoughts of vengeance.  He honestly looked that defeated.

“Why…why didn’t you ask for help? Surely a teacher would have done something.” 

The fact that he was still going through this made it clear that no one had and Hana didn’t want to ask knowing she wasn’t going to like the answer but it had to be done.

“Remember Chomaki-sensei? From two years ago?”

Hana frowned.  She remembered that he was a shit math teacher and an even shittier person, grating on the nerves of his female colleagues with his abrasive sleazy ways.

“Ibu’s his nephew.  He’s also terrible at science.  He is…or was worse than me.  Chomaki-sensei didn’t like that.  And then there’s…”

Tsuna wove a horrifying, but entirely plausible (logical, realistic) tale of how several events and people conspired together to make his life a living hell.  After it all, he sat there shrunken down as if hunching his shoulders would allow him to hide behind his mug. 

This was just…and those-those _monkeys_ dared to call themselves human. Because of the thoughts she was currently harboring, it took Hana a moment to realize that Kyoko had started talking.

“…I…I…my-my…big brother died…I was the one who found his body…”

She trembled and refused to look up from the dregs of her cup.  Hana didn’t dare to breathe. Kyoko was talking.  About _that day_.  She never ever talked about that day.  Not since the first two weeks after her brother had died.

“It…he was always so big…so loud…so bright…I thought nothing could ever bring my big brother down.  But he liked to fight and would pick them with older people and-and I guess one day…someone did.  He was just so…he was still warm, but he wasn’t-” Her voice broke and she squeezed onto the mug so tightly Hana thought she would break the handle off.

It was then that Tsuna plopped the bright yellow pot with the equally bright yellow daylilies right in front of her.

“Talk to Sun.  I need to take care of things.”

“Sawada.” Hana hissed.  What the hell was he doing?  Kyoko was finally talking, doing something all those child psychologists and her parents and even Hana couldn’t (wouldn’t) pry from her and yet somehow Sawada had managed to do it.  She’s be damned if he messed this up.

“It’s alright.  I’m not here.  Hana’s not here.  All that matters is you and them.”

There wasn’t pity in his eyes though, but she had no idea what it was and he was already turning away from them both and opening his window.

“If it makes you feel better, the both of us will leave. Just talk.”

There was the rustle of fertilizer beads being shaken about.  Not knowing what else to do or why she was even going along with his orders, Kyoko went ahead with it anyways focusing on the cheery yellow suns embossed along the side of the pot; her eyes tracing the raised squiggles radiating from the center slightly misshapen circles.

“He was just too still and his eyes were wide open and-and-and it’s just too quite…everything’s too quiet.  I can’t sleep because I’m so used to listening to his snores and they’re not there anymore.  If I get a nightmare I can’t crawl into his bed anymore.”

Hana was reminded of the way Kyoko would share her bed during sleepovers.  The way she would press her ear against her chest to let the warmth of another body and the steady thumping of a beating heart sink in.  Hana’s mom snored.  Loudly.  Ironically, the very thing that would keep her husband and daughter awake was what lulled Kyoko to sleep.

“My parents weren’t home much so it was up to me to cook meals.  Most of the time it was just the two of us.  Onii-chan and me.  Me and Onii-chan.  It didn’t matter that Okaa-san and Otou-san were always out late because Onii-chan’s presence was big enough to fill up the whole house just by himself.  I think he knew that though.  No matter what he was doing he always _always_ came back to eat with me.” 

Kyoko trailed off to stare intently at the multitude of thin leaves springing from the stalk like the bristles of a bottle brush.  She mentally began to count them to try to take her mind off the topic.  Tsuna left and returned with the familiar long nosed watering pail by the time she was done. He passed by both girls as if the only thing in his view were the plants.  He even began humming a song, something new and popular on the radio. 

“Then one day…he didn’t. It was a Sunday.  We didn’t have school but it was about time for dinner.  I went out to look for him.  He liked jog around the town but his favorite park was the big one near Block Thirty-Three. He just-he just-” 

Kyoko’s breath hitched and she began to cry, tears blurring the brown speckles on the yellow petals before her.

“He-he ju-just-he wasn’t mo-mmooviiinggg…he wa-wasn’t-“ *gasp* “he-he-he-he…”

She got louder and louder and sobbed bitterly, tears and mucus running down her face as she continued to talk and the entire time Tsuna continued to tend to his plants, not looking, not speaking, and for all intents and purposes, not even acknowledging their existence.  Yet when Hana was about to take her into her arms like she had always done, Tsuna shot her a look as if to say ‘Don’t interfere.’

 _Who are you to tell me not to comfort my best friend._ She about to ignore him when…

“I-I miss him!  I want him baaaaccckkk!”  Kyoko wailed.  “I waaannnttt myyyy Oooonnniiiii-chhaaaannn baaaahahahaaaacck!”

There were thirteen flowers in the pot before her.  The same age Ryohei would be if he was still alive. Kyoko kept her face up to stare at the yellow blur in front of her.  If she tried hard enough she could imagine that his face was staring back at her with that worried panicked expression he always had when she cried.  Her mug fell to the floor but neither girl cared, much less noticed.

Tsuna slid a tissue box to Hana and left, carrying away all the now empty cups with him.  When he returned, it was with a large plate of snacks and more tea.  Then he walked out without another word.  He would take care of Sun later tonight.  Right now Kyoko needed it the most and there was another garden to tend to outside.

* * *

Hana came out.  Alone and sporting a considering expression despite the flat line of her pursed lips.  Tsuna ignored her.  Or maybe he didn’t even notice because he was perched on a ladder and trimming some unwanted growth from the mass of vines climbing towards the roof on the other side of the house.

Then she did a double take.  When she and Kyoko had first arrived it had mostly been two leafy trellises that only reached six feet up.  Now the Akebia had taken over a third of the wall.  She knew they were fast growers and could easily reach at least twenty to thirty feet in a year’s time but this was unbelievably (impossibly) so.  They weren’t even half of that height last week.  Akebia were known to be incredibly invasive so it was easy enough to figure out why the boy was up there and trimming away.

The Sawadas had converted every inch of unpaved ground (and over half of the paved ground) into their garden and despite first (and second and third) glances, it was amazingly well controlled even with the rampant growth going on.  However, the mother and son duo seemed to be barely keeping up with their normal jungle of a garden and now she found that they had decided to get some ridiculously prevalent vines as well.

They had to be crazy. 

Tsuna was going higher and it looked more like he was guiding the existing vines towards certain directions that only he seemed to have an idea about.  Hana thought about calling out, but he still didn’t seem to have noticed her.  Just to be on the safe side she decided to wait until he was back on the ground. 

He pulled back to take one last look, hooked his tools back onto a thick tool belt around his waist, and climbed back down and folded and stowed away the ladder into the small shed by himself.  Then he looked at her.  It seemed that Tsuna had reverted to back to his usual skittish self and they stared unsure of what to say.

“How did you know what to do? How did you know what to say?”  Hana started off.  “No one’s been able to get anything from her since that big lug died.” Not even Hana as much as it hurt her to admit it.  Sasagawa Ryohei wasn’t so much like a monkey as he was a gorilla and he was a real idiot but he had always treated her well and he adored Kyoko as much as she adored him. 

“It’s…it’s different for everyone but for most people it’s…it’s like watering a plant.”

Hana’s expression clearly showed that she didn’t understand.

“If you have don’t have proper drainage and too much water, it will stagnate.  It’ll eventually drown and rot the roots which will fester and spread and eventually kill the plant.”

It took a few moments to translate his words and not for the first time, Hana was grateful that her father owned a flower shop and had pounded all sorts of things about them into her head from birth.  This conversation would be a lot more confusing otherwise.

“Are you saying that Kyoko would have died from grief?”

“Ye-yes.  I-I mean no-no! Not at all…maybe?” Tsuna helplessly wrung his hands. “It’s different for every plant, every person and Kyoko-chan looked sort of…wilted.”

He cringed under her stare.

“Wilted and…neglected...”

Hana’s temper flared.

“Are you saying that I haven’t been supporting her?” Hana hissed vehemently as she took a threatening step forward.  Holding her through her tears?  Sharing the same bed at least four nights week for the last few years because she can’t sleep otherwise? Are you saying that **I**. **Don’t. Care?!** ”

Tsuna shifted like he was about to turn tail and run home, but he was already there.  There was nowhere else to go and he had to see this through to the end anyways.

“No-no-no.  I…neglected may not entirely be the right word…I…she’s…she needed to be drained!  You’re probably the mulch over her soil!”

“…what.”

At her incredulous expression, Tsuna hurried to explain.

“Every plant needs a-a certain set of conditions for optimal growth.  Kyoko-chan has-or had-good soil and room with great mulch to keep weeds from mooching off her nutrients but…she may have been over fertilized and over watered.

I’ve never met her brother, but if I had to guess, I’d say that he was her bright light and she’d be something like a hibiscus or a rose of Sharon or maybe a buddleja.  Something that does best with full sun.

The problem is that she’s not in the ground.  Not anymore.  From the way she talks it about how her parents are always working, they might know how to care for a plant, but not the specifics for the kinds their children are.  At first, after suddenly losing their son, my guess is that they panicked and uprooted her from the ground to a pot indoors.  Then they overwatered and overfertilized her, meaning well but ultimately doing more harm than good.”

Hana thought back to those early days and found that he was right.  If she compared the phrase ‘uprooted from the ground to a pot indoors’ to mean a sudden and stressful change, then that would be true. Kyoko’s parents had turned all their attention to their only child left and coddled her as best as they.  They wouldn’t have known what kind of soil would be best, how to properly trim the roots, and they’d have picked a pot more for its looks than function in the hopes that it would somehow give the image that things were better but that wasn’t how plants worked. 

Overwatering and overfertilizing would be the constant visits with those useless psychiatrists with their misleading (pointless) degrees framed all along their walls and the way her parents thought that buying all the things she had previously wanted would make her feel better instead of being a constant reminder that the only reason she was getting it was because her brother died.

…

Once again she was more than thankful that she grew up with a florist.  However, Tsuna wasn’t done.

“Then they dealt with their own grief and when she seemed okay, they left her alone because they were starting to move on with their lives, but Kyoko-chan was still left behind in a pot without proper drainage, not enough light and too much fertilizer and water and well…”

Tsuna shrugged weakly.

“You know best what happened after that.  By staying with you more often, her pot was given a chance to dry out some and have all that extra fertilizer removed, but it’s not enough.  She still has all that water and…probably root rot and root burn too.”

Sawada Tsunayoshi was scary.  At that moment, that was all Hana could think of the meek figure standing before her.  Short of hiring a private detective, how could anyone figure all that out? And just by comparing it to a plant in a pot of all things.  She had to know.

“How long did it take you to figure this out?”

“…after she began talking…it just all…clicked somehow.  Everything fell into place and I knew around the time she started crying.”

He was more than scary, he was terrifying.

“If I’m the mulch, then what are you?”

“…a rock.”

“…”

“I’m the rock on the side walk.  I’m not trash so there’s no point in picking me up even to throw away or recycle for a chance to become something new, something better.  I won’t die so easily so people kick me around for fun and either don’t know or don’t care if I break, because let’s face it.  I’m just a no good rock taking up space and getting in the way of higher life forms.”

What a bleak way to view your life.  Tsuna turned away and motioned her to follow him back inside.

“…but today…” He continued. “…some kids ended up kicking that rock a little too hard and accidently cracked a pretty little pot.  That rock figured that it might as well do some good for once and smashed a hole to let all that stagnant water drain out.  She’s a nice bush, still salvageable and with some time and proper care, she’ll be able to flower again so beautifully only the most observant people will ever notice that she has a broken pot.  Maybe she’ll even be able to send her roots out from that hole and find the right conditions to flourish again.”

If it hadn’t been for his experiences with Stranger-san Tsuna might have never taken the initiative for such a thing to someone who knew him, knew who Dame-Tsuna was.  As it was, Kyoko had never once mocked or looked down on him, being far too wrapped up in her own grief to even notice and Tsuna supposed that if his plants were good enough for Stranger-san whose eyes showed an old soul that held a much more profound sorrow, they’d be good enough for someone who would be able to overcome this time of pain with just a little care.  It was against his nature to give up on a living being no matter what anyone else would say.

* * *

Kyoko was still sitting in the same spot.  The snacks were untouched and the tea had gone cold.  Her eyes were red and puffy and she seemed to be focusing on Sun with unnerving intensity but she did turn to him when he entered the room. 

Tsuna took it all in but continued to ignore her as he carefully checked over the moisture in Sun’s soil.  It was about time to add some more water, but more importantly, it would soon be time to repot everyone.  He had spent more time preparing the individual soil and compost blends for each plant than he had for his homework along with several individual jars of homemade fertilizer.  By the time the garden outside could afford a day off, they’d be ready.

When he had finished putting away the last of his tools, he sat back down across from her and Hana.

“Feeling better?”

Kyoko seemed to come back to herself.

“…I…yes…I think I do.”

She realized that she wasn’t lying.  She wasn’t quite as miserable anymore. Instead she just felt tired and a little numb.  Worn out, but somehow she felt like she could breathe a little easier now.

Tsuna smiled faintly.

“That’s…that’s good.”

Kyoko tentatively smiled back.

“If…you’d like.  You can both stay for dinner.  Mama would be more than happy to have you.”

“We’ll stay.” Hana answered for her.  It’s not like she could let Kyoko stay home alone after today.  Her parents were used to this anyways.  Kyoko was practically their other daughter in all but name now.

Dinner was…interesting.  Nana called to say that she was in Yamagata for the night and would return tomorrow so it fell to Tsuna to prepare dinner. Tsuna insisted that all he could really do was take care of plants but he was a pretty good cook too.  Not as good as his mother but on par with Kyoko which meant that he was a couple of steps above both of Hana’s parents too. 

“I lost someone too.  He was old and died peacefully in his sleep not too long ago.” He admits halfway through the meal.  “It hurts. It still does and it always will but it’s getting easier.  Life goes on, but as long as you remember them, they’ll always be alive in your own heart.”

They do their homework together and Hana and Kyoko step in to tutor Tsuna who truly was dismal when it came to academics but tried hard anyways.  When they’re all done, Tsuna packs two baskets of fruit from the greenhouse for them just before they leave.

Kyoko walks away with reluctance, but despite the burden of the basket, her steps have a lightness to them that Hana hasn’t seen in over a year.  It’s not quite a spring, but it’s not the slow footsteps weighted down by such heavy sorrow nor is that desperate speed-walk that seems as if she can outpace it if she is fast enough.

There’s just a normal walk.  Casual. Normal. Just like before _that day_.  And Hana has no idea just how much she had missed it until right this very moment.

“Hana?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Tsuna-kun will like cookies or cupcakes better?”

Cooking, like everything else that reminds her of her brother, still hurts Kyoko because she always makes too much for one person but just enough for a boy who eats enough for two and a girl who can sometimes match him and occasionally a pair of adults who are their parents.

Baking is different than cooking as this was more of something she does for Hana and the other ‘friends’ (sympathetic but ultimately useless classmates at school who have mostly drifted away or just continue to cluck their condolences like chickens) but she doesn’t do much of that anymore either.

It’s a start though.  Everything has a start, including the healing process.

Hana takes it back.  Sawada Tsunayoshi was beyond terrifying.  He was amazing.  He had managed to reach the crux of the problem and was already doing damage control as efficiently as he deadheaded old flowers and plucked ripe fruit.

The so called No Good-Tsuna was so far from no good that those monkeys surrounding him were too jealous to stand it, hoping that if they flung enough of their crap at him, he’d turn into something worse than them and the stupid ones joined in just because they thought it seemed like fun too.

Hah! Even if you covered a diamond in crap, it was still a diamond through and through. 

She idly wondered if she was maybe giving Sawada a little too much credit by calling him a diamond, but who knows?  Maybe he was. Maybe he was right about being a rock but didn’t know enough to realize his own worth, uncut and unpolished but still one of the most coveted gems in the world.  Maybe they were the lucky ones to have stumbled over it first.

* * *

They come back the next day with a box full of homemade sugar cookies and Kyoko spends more and more time chatting to everyone, pitching in as much as she can while Tsuna and Nana work. 

Hana observed the woman before her carefully as she set the table and thought about the questions she had wanted to ask.  Questions her father had wanted her to ask.  But there was something more important that she wanted to confirm.

“My father once asked what was the secret to your successful garden.”

Nana stopped humming her cheerful tune to show that she was listening.

“He said your answer was that it had someone’s love and kindness blessing it.”

Her only response was a smile and Hana gazed through the house windows to where Tsuna was outside explaining to Kyoko the appropriate time to harvest the many overgrown squashes that were threatening to bring the sturdy arbors down over their heads.

“He thought that it was a reference to your husband and the money he provides you with to buy all this.”  She waved at the greenhouse and the various equipment that was sure to cost a pretty yen.  “The tools, the fertilizer, the soil and whatever else you’ve got.  These are all top of the line brand name supplies, but that’s not the real reason is it.”  There was no question to her words.  “The real reason is that Tsuna has two green thumbs and anything that involves photosynthesis is under his jurisdiction.  You’re his support, his assistant, not the other way around.  The real secret to your successful garden is that you are only following the orders of the one who knows exactly what needs to be done.”

Nana’s smile never changed.

“My, my, aren’t you the clever one.”

She didn’t even slow down her knife, dicing away at the cucumbers Tsuna had just picked. 

“You are the third person to ever figure this out Hana-chan.  Not even my husband realizes this.  He thinks that it’s my hobby, but really, I only started because of Tsu-kun.  As such, you are one of the very few people to even know about my son’s magic touch.  My shy sweet Tsu-kun who’s never really grown out of hiding behind his mother’s skirts.”

There was a sigh as she swept the cubes into a bowl, rinsed and wiped her knife and proceeded to slice some bell peppers.

“It’s slow going, but more and more people are coming to see who my son really is.  I have faith that one day Tsu-kun will be surrounded by so many loyal friends that he’ll find himself scrambling to just to make enough time to be with them all.  When it comes time, he won’t need to hide anymore.”

Hana was about to say something when she spotted something red near Tsuna and Kyoko.  It was a baby in red clothing with a tiny monkey on his head.  She blinked and rubbed her eyes a little, but they were still there.

“Oh!   Looks like we’re having guests.  Hana-chan, would you mind setting these out next to Tsu-kun’s place?”

Doll sized china was presented to her and a part of the girl’s brain stuttered to a halt when she realized that it was actually two sets of plates, bowls and utensils in the palms of her hands. 

* * *

There was a baby.  A baby with a monkey.  The Sawadas chattered to the pair as if it was a perfectly normal thing. What. The. Hell.

Hana had an aversion to little kids ever since she had gone to a family reunion and ended up stuck with the bunch of brats that were too babyish to hang out with the older pre-teens, but too young to actually be a baby that adults liked to coo over.  They were some of the worst little terrors Hana had ever had the misfortune to meet in her young life and she had come away from that experience needing a new haircut to get the gum out of her hair, a ruined hair accessory that she had begged her parents for over two weeks to get and the loss of her favorite shoes because one of her cousins thought it would be funny to super glue half of the guests’ footwear to the entrance way.  Not even the spanking and grounding he got after that was enough to make Hana ever want to deal with them again.

The baby, Stranger-san as he was introduced, had a pair of bamboo chopsticks, just a little over half the size of the children one’s she had seen in the stores.  For the tiny monkey, a cute little thing that looked more like a plush she could win from one of those claw-grabbing prize machines than a real animal, tooth picks and a tiny spoon were his utensils of choice when he didn’t want to dirty his furry hands.  He could also pour tea for everyone with astonishing grace. 

Kyoko seemed to find nothing wrong about this scene though and Hana was a bit worried for her.  And for the Sawadas, especially Tsuna once she found that he and the baby were still calling each other Stranger-san after knowing each other for so many months.

“Shouldn’t you both be close enough to know each other’s names by now? Aren’t you friends?”

The startled disbelieving look Tsuna shoots her is something that shouldn’t make her heart squeeze so painfully, but it does.  It does and she’s bullheaded enough to keep forging ahead when she sees the way the boy sneaks a tentatively hopeful look at the baby.

“Friends should at least know each other’s names even if they want to be called something else.”

It doesn’t matter that it’s a baby and babies are supposedly innocent.  If he says anything that will destroy those fragile hopes and trust beyond repair, she will think he’s the devil himself.

No one makes a move, much less a sound and even the monkey is giving his master deservedly pointed looks.

Hana realizes that she’d probably have to find another word to call those idiots at school because it would be an insult to this brilliant little beast otherwise.

* * *

Fon waits, wanting to be the first to offer his name, but knowing that it’s the boy who will have to make the first move otherwise he will feel pressured into accepting and the last thing Fon wants is for him to feel obligated no matter how that hopeful face says otherwise.  He wants the boy to take the initiative on his own just like he had when he had offered the peaceful sanctity of his room for a complete stranger.

Taking little steps like this to become more assertive is the only way he’ll be able to change his life for the better. 

Stranger-san does not disappoint him.

“I…I…I’m Sawada Tsunayoshi,” he blurts out.  “But you can call me Tsuna.” Like it’s a last second impulse, Tsuna holds out his hand.  “Nice to meet you.”

Fon smiles and takes it, wrapping his tiny hand around Tsuna’s pointer finger in a firm grip.

“My name is Fon.  It’s nice to meet you too Tsuna-san.”

“Tsuna.” The boy insists.  “Just Tsuna.”

“Tsuna.”

Tsuna’s smile warms his heart like a cup of his favorite tea and around them the womenfolk resume there chatter.

Later Fon tells Tsuna that he has good friends.

Tsuna flushes and is adorably awkward about it, but Kyoko pipes in with “Tsuna-kun is a great friend. One of a kind.” and Hana gives a “He’s worth more than the rest of those useless pests at school combined, teachers included.”

Nana beams, so delighted with this all that she ends up baking a cake with fresh tangerine slices neatly arranged on top like a flower which makes Kyoko smile brighter than ever.

Being here never fails to bring good feelings and rejuvenate his mind, body and soul.  The next morning Fon swears to hurry through his next set of jobs so that he can return that much faster.

* * *

Two weeks later, they’re nearly done with the project.  It’s getting late though and Hana decides it’s time for another push.  Once they’re done, they’ll be free to work on other things like baking (which Kyoko has taken up again) and gardening (which is all Tsuna seems to do in his spare time) so they agree to finish it even though it takes them past midnight to do so.

Hana’s parents think she’s staying with Kyoko tonight and she is, just not at the empty (and far too quiet) Sasagawa household.

They’re sleeping over at Tsuna’s and sharing the bed in the guest room.  Why doesn’t Tsuna use it when it’s bigger than his own room is a point of confusion that never gets clarified, but at the moment it’s convenient because the bed here is a little bigger than Tsuna’s as well.

Despite the amount of time both girls had taken to spending here, the bed was still different and the sounds of the house settling down are different and the only thing familiar is the press of a warm body and calming scent of their best friend.

Hana was exhausted but Kyoko’s whimpers woke her anyways and with the ease of long practice she gently shook her awake.  Then she rubbed her back, listening to the quiet sniffles emerging from the face pressed against her chest.  She’s long since stopped asking what those dreams were about.  Kyoko never remembers or if she does she’s not telling.

Instead Hana thinks of ways to distract her from her thoughts.

“Do you want me to get Sun?  I’m sure Tsuna won’t mind and I can put it back before he ever finds out.”

Kyoko has become rather taken with those yellow lilies.  Even though the others are more impressive, with a bounty of flowers or other colors there’s something about this simple but no less lovely plant that just calls to her.  Whenever she has to talk about the past, she always focuses on Sun’s bright petals.

There’s no answer, but the squeeze of Kyoko’s arms is enough for one.

They sneak quietly open the door to his room and while Tsuna doesn’t wake, there is a strange feeling in the air.  It smells of earth and damp and greenery and life.  The window is closed, but moonlight shines through the open curtains and onto the plants which have been rearranged to different places again.

Sun is sitting on the table next to Lightning and it would be so easy to just walk over and pick it up.  Kyoko could talk to it for an hour or two and they could put it back.  Tsuna would never know. But…somehow it feels wrong, like they would break the strange tranquility of this moonlit space by doing so.

Instead Kyoko takes a seat on the floor but doesn’t say a word with Hana following suit.  She falls asleep ten minutes later and Hana is torn between moving her back to the guest bed or risking the embarrassment of being caught in the morning.

She debates for so long that when she finally takes another look, Kyoko is smiling in her sleep.  With a sigh, Hana goes back to grab the pillows and blanket from the guest room and takes her place next to her best friend.

She doesn’t think she can possibly sleep but before she knows it her breathing evens out and her last thought is _‘At least Tsuna doesn’t snore.’_

* * *

Kyoko dreams.  She dreams that she’s small again and her Onii-chan who’s smaller than an adult but bigger than life is there. 

They are at home and she’s just woken up from a scary dream.  It was about faceless monsters who have come to take her things away.  Whenever she had scary dreams, she’d always climb into bed with Onii-chan who’d hold her to his chest.  It was harder than her bed and harder than her pillow and so much noisier but that was okay.  It means he was big enough and strong enough to chase those monsters away.

Kyoko dreams that she’s holding him, arms wrapped around his broad chest as much as they can and even though he’s not hugging her back, it’s fine because he rarely does.  Onii-chan tends to sprawl out like a starfish.

He’s talking to her.  It’s not as loud as she remembers him being, but she knows he can be quieter at times, considerate for the others sleeping in the house.  This is one of those times.

He says something about being _extremely_ fine, _extreme_ apologies for making her cry and how he’s doing _extremely_ well and he’s not lonely because he has some pretty _extreme_ companions too.

But it’s time to sleep now so he wishes her an _extremely_ good night and falls back asleep. 

Kyoko’s dream fades but the sound of rumbling snores lingers long after she wakes.

* * *

Tsuna’s alarm goes off and a hand quickly reaches out to turn it off.  It’s five-thirty in the morning and while he’s still tired, he’s glad that the project is finished.  Even better, he doesn’t have school today.   There’s a lot of work to be done but it’s work that Tsuna doesn’t mind, enjoys even.

His mother will be up to make breakfast and after that it’ll be time to head back into the garden. 

Sleepily blinking, he finally makes out Hana curled up next to Kyoko who’s clutching Sun’s pot so tightly he wouldn’t be surprised if she had an imprint of the suns on her own face.

Tsuna gazes on sadly, but doesn’t wake them.  Instead he pulls the covers up a little higher, grabs a set of old work clothes and heads to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

When Hana tries to say something later, Tsuna cuts her off with an offer to sleep in the guest room and let the girls take his if they want.

Hana twitches and gives into the urge to poke him rather harshly on the forehead for being such a generous idiot.

In the future, sleepovers become more and more frequent because Kyoko sleeps better there than anywhere else and in the end Nana gives them two futons to set up in Tsuna’s room.

If this was anyone else, Hana would balk at sharing a room with a boy, much less allowing Kyoko to do so, but this is Tsuna the Diamond, uncut and unpolished and a girl’s best friend.  She grudgingly admits that she gets a better night’s sleep here than even her own house.

* * *

Ina-sensei waited another week after the day Sawada had requested, citing that she had some problems with the plumbing in her house and that she had been so busy with the trouble that came from it that she had ended up forgetting about grading their quizzes until the night before.

Team Eight’s project was factual, but interesting and full of colorful pictures of the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen.  Not a blemish or dead leaf in sight.  When asked, Hana claimed that they were plants that could be bought from her family’s shop, but these particular ones weren’t for sale as they were already owned by a family that the group had to go through a lot of trouble to convince to let them take pictures of their precious plants.

They received a perfect hundred.  However to the surprise of everyone else, the girls always included Tsuna in everything they did afterwards.  They refused to leave his side and this earned him the ire of many of his classmates.

The next few months of school flew by and much to her horror, the predicted events proceeded as if it was she was in the script of a badly written play.  She didn’t call on him anymore and if a student was caught misbehaving (i.e. participating in the bullying of Sawada), they’d receive a stricter punishment than usual for some other rule infringement.  Ninety-five percent of her students were a part of the victimization of Sawada.  She could count on one hand the number of people in the entire school who actively chose to help the brunet instead of looking the other way with fingers left over.

But Sawada continued on through school like he always did, head down, as quiet and unobtrusive as he could make himself.  Yet occasionally small folded notes would find their way onto her desk with advice for how to deal with or avoid situations with the other staff as well as how his grade should be shown.  They were invaluable and made things much smoother for her.  She questioned why didn’t he take his own advice though.  If he was this good at reading others, why wasn’t he ridiculously popular?  Or at least, able to trick people into liking him more?

* * *

The first time Tsuna walks into the Kurokawa Flower Shop, he brings several covered baskets tied to a wheeled cart as a welcome gift because he’s staying for dinner.

Hana introduces him to her father, Yukio, and her mother, Kaori.  Yukio is a florist and the one responsible for making most of the arrangements along with training other employees.  Although Kaori didn’t exactly have a green thumb herself, she came from a family that grew and sold flowers to florists so it was easier and cheaper to get the stock for their shop.  She also dealt with the bookkeeping side of the business.

They’re polite enough at first and Tsuna tentatively begins to come out of his shell, but as soon as Yukio lays eyes on the bounty that he’s brought over, his eyes take on a near maniacal gleam and he approached the petrified boy with grabby hands that looked more like the actions of a pervert about to grope someone than an innocent florist.

Luckily Tsuna’s saviors step in.

“Tou-san!” Hana snaps and shoves him back with both palms pressed against his chest.  “I already told you he’s shy.  Don’t be such a creeper.”

Kaori tugs her husband back by the ear harshly.

“She’s right dear.  You’re being rude.”  She turns to Tsuna who looks like he’s debating about bolting back out though the glass door behind him. “Sorry about this.  Yukio has an obsession with plants.  It’s so nice of you to bring some.” 

“It really is!” exclaims the man who’s still being held back by his wife.  “I’m the biggest fan of the Sawada Harvest.”

Hana groans at the same time as her mother and Kyoko giggles quietly while Hana explains that her dad has gotten into fist fights in public over it.  There are certain stores that Hana can’t go into anymore because she’s afraid she’ll die from the embarrassment.

“I-it’s no problem.  We always grow more than we can eat.”

Tsuna slowly starts to unwind as the night passes and even gets to tour the shop. He spends several long moments staring at the cut flowers though, nearly jumping out of his skin when Hana’s father comes up from behind to ask if he likes them.

“They’re…nice. They’re all beautiful, but…”

Yukio gives him a knowing look.

“You prefer the ones still intact.  The ones still in the dirt.  Like those.”  The man gestures towards the shelves where small pots of bulb flowers and miniature roses sit.

 “Yeah.”

“And that’s fine too.  You don’t just care for the flowers and the fruits.  You love everything from the roots to the tips of their leaves and all the thorns, hairs, and other not so pleasant things that most people don’t want to see.”

Tsuna watches him carefully, giving a slow nod before turning back to the flowers.

“Taking care of plants is the only thing I’m good at. It’s something that doesn’t hurt anyone and can bring smiles to others. I can love doing this with all my heart and I’m grateful because there can be worse things to love even half-heartedly.”

Yukio blinks and takes a good look at the profile of this small boy still gazing at the colorful contents of the refrigerators.  No wonder Hana has taken to him so well.  There’s a sort of maturity here that makes it hard for Yukio to find in his own contemporaries, much less children their age.

Kyoko might as well be his other daughter at this point and he’s not blind to her issues, but lately she’s been looking better.  Much better.  She’s not quite so bubbly and carefree like before, but she doesn’t looking like a grieving widow either.  She’s moving on and while he had his misgivings when he found out that Hana was spending all her time with a boy, even sleeping over there instead of Kyoko’s house, if Tsuna shapes up to be as good as she says he is (a diamond in the rough Hana calls him), then he and his wife will give their blessings to this friendship.

Besides, as the number one fan of the Sawada Harvest, he’s certainly not going to be rude to someone who can provide him with free produce.

* * *

Hana’s parents eventually find out the secret to the Sawada’s miraculous garden.  It’s Tsuna. 

It all starts because some plants don’t look so well and despite everyone else’s best efforts, they continue to fade.  The typhoon season makes it hard for new shipments to come in and they are having issues because their main supplier has had a bit of bad luck with disease infecting a great deal of the more popular plants. Hana drags Tsuna in and all but orders him to fix the problem.  In a nice way of course. 

Because if he can keep grow all sorts of plants that shouldn’t be able to survive in this environment alive, he as sure as hell can cure whatever is going on in her family shop.

Tsuna comes without complaint every day just before closing time to care for them no matter how cold or wet or windy it gets.  He spends the first day wandering around the shop with paper and pen, taking notes of all the issues.  Then he works on the plants late into the night long after everyone else is asleep and well past sunrise.  Kaori ends up driving him home, but he’s back the next night, and the next and the next.

Tsuna’s careful to never give others reasons to be thought of as something more than just Hana’s friend and the employees don’t see him as anything more than the shy little boy who likes to look at the flowers.

By the end of the first week, everything looks alive and moderately healthy.  By the end of the second, they’re blooming like no tomorrow.  By the third, rumors have spread that the Kurokawa’s have gotten a really good shipment of flowers recently and Yukio has to fend off curious rival vendors and customers alike about what they’re doing to keep everything looking so good.  Even the cut flowers are lasting an abnormally long time and for some reason, they’re just not _wilting_ well after their usual limit.

Yukio is more of an artist than he is a shopkeeper and being able to keep so many flowers alive that much longer allows him to have a greater selection to choose from when he makes his arrangements.  Kaori is pleased because this means less wasted stock and less money being lost. 

Tsuna refuses all payment though and continues to quietly work while being as unobtrusive as he can.  He’s cut down the visits to once every few days when the plants no longer need his constant care, but still comes by to check up on them. 

Nana sends an invitation for them to come for dinner and Hana’s father all but jumps on the chance to visit the garden than the woman rarely ever allows visitors to enter.  The stakes and trellis and arbors that ring the small yard are tall and everything that uses them always ends up reaching even higher.  Short of climbing onto the rooftops, even their next door neighbors wouldn’t be able to see much of the yard itself. 

Everything’s going well enough until Tsuna leads them to the back.

Kaori gasps at the same time as her husband chokes on air. 

This place is alive and crowded with overwhelming greenery, a huge contrast to the rest of the suburban neighborhood beyond their property.

Splashes of color break up the view and they can’t help but stare at the way the akebia have taken over the entire back wall and side walls of the house and pods  upon pods of purple, pale lavender and white fruit hang like ornaments on a Christmas tree.  Huge vegetables and fruits are everywhere with countless more flowers promising another round of equally superior produce.

Bees buzz everywhere throughout this confusing hodgepodge of a garden as there are no discernable paths. The plants have nearly taken them over and Tsuna gives a soft sigh that Hana and Kyoko have comes to learn means fond exasperation.  The paths had just been cleared two days ago and the only evidence that they ever existed were the few rarely patches of dirt that could be seen between the foliage.

It’s a god’s garden as the girls have begun to refer to it as.

“So~.“ Nana claps her hands together.  “What would you like to eat?  I have some recipes for stuffed akebi rinds and the white asparagus and Senju leek are ready as well.  There are saltwater tomatoes as well or if you’d prefer something with a little more crunch we have a variety of squash. For dessert we also have honeydew, watermelon, figs, tangerines, strawberries…”

Kaori just manages to close her gaping mouth just as Yukio stammers out a “H-Ho-How?!”

“Love.” Says Kyoko.

“Magic.” Says Hana.

“Tsu-kun.” Says Nana.

Tsuna just shrugs when all eyes turn to him.

“Things grow.  I don’t know how or why, but they just do.”

Yukio wants to file for joint custody with Nana for Tsuna who gently but firmly refuses.  When he later tries to convince Tsuna that he should join the family registry via marriage to his daughter, his wife slaps him on the back of his head and Hana stomps on his unprotected feet.  While wearing boots. Repeatedly. 

Kyoko giggles in the background and Tsuna winces a bit but decides that ushering the new melon vines back to their designated area takes priority over interfering with Hana’s retribution.

* * *

Despite Hana’s bold blunt nature and sharp tongue, she’s still says nothing about the plants that Tsuna holds dearest.  A part of her doesn’t want to let anyone else know or see.  It wouldn’t be right, spilling such an important secret like that. 

This little magical garden is more than the culmination of Tsuna’s love and care.  It is the cure for Kyoko’s nightmares and trauma.  It is the peace of mind and heart that her best friend will be more than okay for Hana.  Most of all, it is Tsuna’s heart and soul and losing this would no doubt break him the same way Kyoko had broken upon losing her brother.

That’s why she doesn’t say a word when her parents wonder if he ever grows something more than just fruits and vegetables and herbs.  Something that’s just for the pleasure of the eye and not the stomach.

Kyoko doesn’t say and Nana doesn’t push either.  Not like she had for the girls the first time they had come over.

But Tsuna-Tsuna, the last person anyone expects to offer-does.  He’s been a little bolder since he decided to offer Fon his name, but it’s really only visible to those who really know him and this is something that’s more than a little bold.

She worries because she knows her dad.  How excited he gets when he sees beautiful flowers.  How embarrassingly sappy and stupid he looks when he thinks about new arrangements of them.  How persistent he is when it comes to getting what he wants.

There’s no doubt that he’ll want. Anyone would and Hana’s resigned to playing her role as The Castle Wall at home as well as at school.

When her father first steps into Tsuna’s room though, he stops at the entrance way just to take in the sights and sounds and smells.  Just like how the garden outside seems so secluded compared to the rest of Namimori, Tsuna’s room can be considered the same.

As she watches her father carefully, politely, reverently approach each flowering pot, she wonders if Tsuna’s terrifyingly amazing people reading skills have given him a better insight to the man than his own wife and daughter will ever know.

* * *

They’re gorgeous.  Everything is and it smells like mulch and earth and fertilizer, things that not everyone can stand, but it also smells like life and green and flowers.

For all that it’s a normal bedroom in a normal house, Tsuna’s room is a world unto its own.  Even though the window is open and he can feel a breeze swirling in, the atmosphere is still different.  Something that Yukio, for the life of him, cannot place but cannot dislike either.

He can hear his wife inhaling sharply behind him as she comes in, but that does nothing to disturb the tranquility of this place.

The first thing that draws his focus is the red rose bush, its branches wielding so many flowers it’s almost impossible to see the leaves.  If he didn’t know better, he’d have thought someone had glued more on.  From there they move on and he mentally catalogues each one.

_‘Plum Blossom, Shamrock Chrysanthemum, Burgundy Iceberg Rose, Double Asiatic Lily, Moonshadow Carnation...’_

His hazel eyes trace the carnation’s ruffled violet petals.  It’s the only pot to contain a single flower which perches on the tip of a long slender stem, but that still doesn’t detract from the beauty of it.  If anything, it’s minimalism at its finest. 

“Do you practice ikebana?” he finally musters up the words to ask.

“Ikebana?  No.  It’s…something like that is beyond me.  I just care for them.”

Yukio hums in place of a reply and takes a while to ask his next question.

“What made you choose these plants in particular?”

“I thought they should have a second chance.”

“Hmm?”

“They…no one wanted them.  No one was going to bother caring for them and they were going to be thrown away so I figured it was the least I could do.”

There’s so much kindness from this boy that it’s practically overflowing into everything he touches.

Yukio can’t bring himself to ask for any of the flowers no matter how beautiful they are.  Hana takes much more after her down-to-earth mother than her father who is prone to flights of fancy, but Yukio thinks she can still feel the special thing that’s in this little garden even if she doesn’t understand what it is. 

It’s love. 

Tsunayoshi loves his plants and he’s loved back by them ten-no a hundredfold.

_‘Love and magic and Tsu-kun huh?’_

The answers he was given were all correct. 

* * *

Tsuna vaguely wonders what would it be like his own father was like Hana’s, a bit more respectful about other’s opinions and actually _there_ for his family, but then he supposes it doesn’t matter.  He’s already welcomed just like Kyoko.  As if he was part of the family. 

He tells Hana that she has a nice father.  When she gripes about how embarrassing he is, Tsuna shrugs.

“At least yours is decent enough.  The last time I saw mine, I came home to him hacking off some of Storm’s flowers because he forgot to get some for their anniversary and didn’t want to go out to get some from the store.  I kicked him out of my room and he spent the next few days whining about how selfish I was being because he only wanted ‘a few beautiful roses for his beautiful wife’ and ‘didn’t I want to make Mama _happy_?’ Storm needed months to recover from the damage, but at least it gave as good as it could because his hands were pretty scratched up.”

There’s something dark in Tsuna’s eyes about that memory.  Darker than anything she and Kyoko have ever witnessed and not even the bullies who still shoot spitballs at the back of his head or try to trip him up ever bring this sort of look.

Hana never says much about her father’s embarrassing ways after that and when she comes back home, she hugs him tightly.

“Thanks Tou-san.”

“For what?”

“For being here and for not being a complete pest.”

Yukio blinks in confusion but hugs her back anyways.

* * *

For Tsuna’s thirteenth birthday, he celebrates with more than just his mother and plants. 

Usually he and his mother share a small cake after a busy day of handling the fall harvest and the overwintering preparations.  It’s nothing really special to Tsuna.  His dad doesn’t call and he’s too preoccupied with daily life to really care. 

His mother usually just gets him new clothes as Tsuna doesn’t want anything else unless it’s for his plants and he has all year to get that sort of thing anyways.  He’s not going to wait for this one not-so-special special day to get what he needs.

So while it’s not a surprise to see Hana and Kyoko at his doorway, it is one to see them handing over colorfully wrapped presents.

“What are those for?”

“For you silly,” giggles Kyoko.  “Happy Birthday!”

Tsuna blinked. 

“It’s my birthday?” Tsuna thought back to the date. “Huh.  I guess it is.”

“Of course it is.  Don’t tell me you forgot.” Says Hana as she toes off her shoes.

“I kinda did.” He admits. “It’s just another day and I already have everything I need. Ah! That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate your thoughtfulness.” He hastily tried to reassure them.  “It’s just really not that important though. I have work to do and it’s always just been Mama and me.  I’ve never had anyone else to celebrate with.” They didn’t miss what went unsaid.   _Never had any friends to celebrate with…_

Hana frowned.

“Well now you do and you’re not going to get away that easily.  I’m demanding at least an hour of your time.  Per guest.”

“I concur with the young lady.”

Hana started so badly she nearly collided with Tsuna.  Right behind her was Fon standing beside a box nearly twice as big as himself.  Lichi waves happily from where he’s perched atop his partner’s head and bounds onto Tsuna’s in a few leaps.

“My apologies Hana-san.”  Says Fon looking not very sorry at all.  “But she is right.  You do have friends now and we want to be a part of your life.”

For all of his quiet maturity and steadfast loyalty, there’s something heartrendingly vulnerable about Tsuna whenever he’s approached with genuine care. 

He ducks his head a bit but doesn’t turn away.

“I..I…thank you everyone.  This means more to me than you could possibly know.”

Hidden from view, Nana smiles and quietly slips back into the kitchen to put the finishing touches on a large birthday cake, one that’s more than three times bigger than the previous years.

* * *

Just before middle school starts, Tsuna decides to do a mass repotting of all his plants in his room and tarp covers everything.

Fon and Lichi are back from doing whatever it is that babies and monkeys do to help.

There are several bags of soil that need to be carried up stairs and Hana stares at the way the baby manages to effortlessly carry the heaviest ones, bounding up the stairs like a rabbit with whatever Tsuna needs held high over his head.

No one else bats an eye though.  The Sawada family is a bit strange but in a good way and it’s not hurting anyone so she lets it go.

Tsuna’s focus is entirely on checking over the roots of each plant and they don’t get more than a few distracted words from him until Kyoko decides to ask one of the most important questions yet.

“When did you first start doing this?”

“Hmm?” Tsuna looks up, still distracted by the root ball he’s trying to trim.

“Gardening I mean.  When did you find out that you like doing this?”

“Ah…”

He pauses and gently lowers Mist as he tries to remember.

“It was back in second grade.  Tani-sensei decided to get the class involved gardening and everyone didn’t just plant vegetables outside.  We also each got a plastic cup to grow some cosmos in that we could take home at the end of the month.  Mine came out with orange and red and yellow flowers.”

There was something painfully nostalgic in his smile as he resumed the detangling of the roots.

Something occurred to Hana just then.  There were no cosmos here.  It should be long dead and Tsuna might not have learned how to harvest seeds at that age, but wouldn’t he have tried growing more?  People were generally fond of their firsts anything.

“When they bloomed, it was two weeks sooner than the teacher had expected.   My flowers grew bigger and lasted longer than the others though even nothing was done differently.  We used the same soil and the same water and somehow they just kept growing and growing and growing.  We were supposed to take them home the day before summer vacation started…”

He went quiet again.

Hana wondered if she should try to prompt him to continue because when it came to Tsuna, there was always more to the story and it was rarely pleasant.  Luckily he decided to keep talking after Mist had been carefully resettled into its new soil and watered.

“On the last day, I was trying to make sure I had all my things packed and when I finally went to get it, I couldn’t find my cup.”

Damn it.  Tsuna didn’t have to say anything. Hana could already tell where this was going.

“I found it though.  Just inside the school gates in a secluded spot not far from the main entranceway.”

Tsuna could still remember the delight of having such pretty flowers coming from those tiny dried seeds.  The joy of returning the next day only to find that another few leaves had sprouted or unfurled.   The worry that gnawed as his heart and gut when he realized it was gone and the disbelief and horror of finding what was left.  The bright petals and leaves had been plucked and tossed about.  Shoes prints belonging to the person that trampled them littered the dirt.

“I tried to salvage as much as I could, but…” Thin shoulders hunched at the memories. 

He remembered gingerly picking up a broken stem, a single orange petal dangling off the half crushed head and gently cradling it in his tiny palms.  One of the few bright pieces unmarred by the bruising most had been subjected to.  Even the roots had been torn apart.  What had once seemed more like a bouquet of fire was now nothing more than a broken heart.

A boy, one of his classmates, had looked back and sneered at him before handing his mother a similar cup with much smaller flowers.  His smug face and cruel laughing eyes lingering in Tsuna’s memories long after his name had faded.

Tsuna didn’t cry.  He just knelt down and began to gently scoop as much as he could back into the plastic cup, cracks and scuff marks spider-webbing from the place it had been carelessly tossed. 

“It was beyond help.”

A pair of small brown loafers paused in front of him and a taller boy, a senpai Tsuna had seen every now and then, but only from a distance, stared down.

_“School is over.  What are you still doing here Herbivore?”_

Tsuna had only given him an expression that looked like he had just found out his mother had died and bent his head back down to continue pushing the petal strewn dirt into the cup.

The boy had frowned but when he took the cup to read the named written on the side, Tsuna’s breath had hitched like he was about to cry and the boy had quickly given it back.

Tani-sensei found them there.

_“Hibari-kun.  What happened here?”_

_“Ask that herbivore.”_

_“Tsunayoshi-kun?”_

Tsuna didn’t say a word.  He just continued to cradle his cracked cup with his dirty hands, uncaring of the way they stained his clothes brown.  The old man had gasped and mourned for those flowers almost as deeply as Tsuna.  He offered to give him a brand new packet of seeds, but Tsuna was still reeling.  No matter how they cajoled or (in Hibari-senpai’s case) threatened him for any information about who had done this, Tsuna never spoke a word about.

There was nothing to be done about the boy.  He had moved away during the break and Tsuna never saw him again.  Later that senpai who was kind enough to stop and occasionally even step in to chase away a bully or two (or a whole crowd of them) died in an accident.  Tsuna was one of the handful of people who genuinely mourned him even though the most words they had ever shared involved Tsuna being threatened for causing a crowd and being an herbivore.

“I didn’t want to grow anymore flowers after that, but around that time it became a big trend to start growing your own vegetable garden so Mama decided to try her hand at it.  For a while I just helped out watering and weeding that.  When I was eight I met Storm.  It was sick and the shop keeper gave it to me for free because he was going to throw it away.  Still had to pay for the fungicide though, but helping it got me started on caring for flowers again.” 

Tsuna was smiling again, that sad uplift of his lips changing to something brimming with gratitude as he stroked a thorny branch laden with red roses. 

No wonder he was so obsessed with never letting people learn about his hobby.  To let them in on his secret was akin to letting them into his heart and it had already been broken before.

Hana became especially sharp tongued to anyone who dared to mock Tsuna within hearing range.  Kyoko stayed close to him as much as possible, knowing her presence was enough to deter quite a bit of potential trouble.  It still hurt to think of her brother, but she couldn’t do anything for him now.  It was Tsuna who needed her and she would begin to ruthlessly exploit the pity people had for the ‘poor traumatized girl’ if they tried to pull anything.

As for Fon, well, it was against his nature to do something mean spirited to innocent civilians, but if some kids who had happened to have a game of ‘Tsuna-Tripping’ happened to somehow get involved in some embarrassing but non-lethal incidents or some adults who had gone out of their way to pick on a certain brunet had issues with bursting pipelines and missing paperwork who could say it was anything but bad luck?

* * *

On the last day of school, Tsuna was held back again and most of his classmates’ jeers could be heard even as they walked out the door.

“HAH! I bet he’s gonna be held back.”

“Dame-Tsuna’s gonna be with the babies now.  How fitting.”

“Maybe he’ll be an elementary schooler forever.”

She wasn’t really sure what to say now that they were alone.

“Why-“

“It’s called being a scapegoat.”

“Sawada…”

“People don’t like admitting that they can fail.  People don’t like being wrong.  People don’t like others being better than them.  It makes them feel bad and people don’t like that either.  It’s much easier to say ‘It’s not my fault’ than it is to say ‘I was wrong’ or even ‘I’m sorry.’  So long as someone is worse off than them, they can say ‘at least I’m not like that guy’.  It makes them feel better and they don’t want to lose that so they’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that that someone else is worse off than them and stays worse than them.”

Accepting.  Level. 

“I’m the smallest one, the slowest one, the weakest one.  Instead of stepping in, everyone chose to overlook it.  As long as they were willfully blind to it, such a distasteful thing as bullying does not exist in their eyes.  It’s merely escalated from there.  I had no strength to fight back, no one to support me, and no benefits for others to reap from me…except for being an outlet for their ugliest emotions.”

No child this young should be having such cynical views in life.

“How can you live like this?”

“As long as I keep my head down, I can survive.  Maybe someday, I’ll be able to leave Namimori and go somewhere far far away where no one has ever heard of Dame-Tsuna.  I can start over from there.  But to do that, I have to survive first.  Right now, that’s all that matters. ”

_But you don’t.  You don’t keep your head down.  You are always watching and no one ever realizes that you do.  You have to constantly watch everyone because you feel like everyone around you is a threat._

“I…Sawada.  I’m sorry for…if I had known sooner…” _But you did_.  That little voice in the back of her mind reminded snidely.  _You were just like everyone else. Sawada doesn’t even realize that he could do so much better than he believed because everyone has looked down on him for so long that even he believes it now._

“It’s alright Ina-sensei.  You were willing to listen.  You were willing to try.  But more than that, you opened your eyes and kept them open.  It’s something most people don’t ever do.  Thank you very much sensei.  But you should stop now.  Close your eyes again.  If you try to help me anymore, you’ll be next.  Let them talk.  I’ll be someone else’s problem soon.  Someone else’s scapegoat soon.” 

Sawada may not have been book smart, but he was unnaturally wise in ways that made her feel as if she was talking to someone who had lived a hundred years instead of a boy just barely half her age.

“Has anyone ever really…tried? You know…”  She floundered.  Why was this so hard to bring up?

He understood anyways. 

“There was someone once…a senpai.  He wasn’t exactly helpful, but he was neutral and fair…and a little scary, but he helped me out a few times...even if he would hit me too.  I heard that he passed away a couple years ago.”  The image of a silvery-eyed boy with black hair and shiny-sometimes bloody-tonfa flashed through her mind.  Could it be?  Lost in her thoughts, she just barely realized that the boy had started talking again.

“You can get away with what you’re doing now to help me graduate.  Now that Utada-sensei, Washio-sensei, and Yabuki-sensei have come to pity you for having me in your homeroom, they won’t bother you like they were doing earlier.  Watch out for Kakino-sensei though.  He won’t care that you are married or pregnant.  Stay with larger groups and do your best to foster closer relationships with others.  Narumi-sensei can be surprisingly chivalrous even if he likes to flirt.  He’s a fairly neutral party too but he will step in if Kakino-sensei tries anything.

After this, when they talk about me, join in.  If you can’t, don’t show that you disapprove.  Just take deep breaths and walk away.  Let them assume that I was a frustrating student.  Someone so bad that you can’t even bear to hear about without losing your temper.  You can’t afford to lose your job and you can’t afford the stress or that’s going to hurt someone other than yourself.”

Orange tinted eyes-had they always looked like that?-gave a knowing glance at her thickening abdomen.  She hadn’t told anyone yet, not even her husband, and it could have been passed off as weight gain from the stress eating she had taken to doing lately.  A hand rested on the barely visible bump in surprise and with a heavy heart she watched as the brunet bowed.  Thanked her one more time.  And walked out.

The girls were waiting just outside.  Both of them sporting concerned frowns.  Hana with her arms crossed across her chest and Kyoko wringing her hands on a handkerchief.  Clearly they had been eavesdropping, but Hana’s presence and poisonous tongue would deter others from ambushing the boy as soon as he was out of her sight. 

The scene made Ina feel a little better as she watched the boy who had opened her eyes to the world around her leave with what were probably his first true friends.  But it was still a little disheartening to see that he would still find it so surprising though.  She was almost afraid to go to the staff meeting that afternoon.  The staff that had overlooked and stunted and crippled an amazing little boy with such satisfied smiles on their faces. 

The next morning, a large basket of freshly grown produce was found on their front doorstep by her surprised husband along with a simple handmade card.

_‘Thank you for everything.’_

At the bottom, hidden underneath a package of sweet smelling tangerines, was small notepad with notes of all her co-workers habits, things she could do to avoid causing more stress, and the health benefits of each of the fruits and vegetables in the basket.

Even when he wasn’t here, he was taking care of her.  She realized that he took exceptionally good care of anything that was important to him.  Kyoko-chan. Hana-chan. And now her.  Work had never been going so smoothly for her in all of her years of teaching.  In the three years she was at Namimori Elementary, she had never become so attached to a single student like this.  She wanted Sawada back. 

_Close your eyes again._

“No. Thank you though Tsunayoshi-kun.  It’s not going to be easy, but I’ll continue to keep my eyes open anyways.”

At the very least, she would do her best to make sure that there was never a repeat of Dame-Tsuna again.  Because if all of this could happen to one innocent child, who could say that it couldn’t happen to hers? 

* * *

“Tsuna-kun?”

“Yes?” 

Tsuna turned to look at the orange haired girl who was now walking him back to his home.  On her other side like usual was their dark haired friend.

“That was a very nice thing you did for Ina-sensei.”

“Mmmm.”  Tsuna tilted his head back to stare up into the dark sky that was gradually lightening as the sun rose.  “It’s the least I could do.  Ina-sensei isn’t likely to listen to my advice.  She’s a good person, but a bit stubborn and it’ll take some adjusting for her to come to terms with things.  Change is always stressful and too much stress will be bad for the baby.”

“Baby?”  Hana asked.  “What baby?”

“Ina-sensei’s baby.”

Both girls stopped.

“Tsuna-kun?”

“Sawada?”

“Hmm?  Didn’t you notice?  She’s been looking a little tired even though she’s doing a good job at hiding it.  I think it’s because all her energy is going towards the baby.  She’s also been putting on weight around her middle lately.  It’s like watching a seed pod form.  I’d say she has about seven and a half months to go.”

Hana and Kyoko looked at each other, but ultimately decided to continue following.

“We should get her a gift when the baby’s born.”

“Her husband usually buys yellow colored bouquets for her from our shop.  I think he’s asked for sunflowers before, but he’s never been able to find one that he likes for her.  Apparently she loves the big ones, but we don’t carry them.”

Tsuna hummed thoughtfully. 

“How about a Mammoth Russian?  I need to do some planning because they’re so big and they tend to leech the soil of nutrients pretty quickly, but I think it’ll be ready in time.”

“Sawada.  If your estimate is right, it’ll be far too late for them by then.  Ina-sensei’s only going to get a dried head and a bunch of seeds.”

“Don’t worry.”  He smiled back almost reassuringly.  “I’ll manage it. Somehow.”

“Well then!”  Kyoko clapped her hands together in delight.  “Hana-chan!  There should be plenty of sunflower themed things this season.  We should start look for a present now.”

Outnumbered, Hana could only sigh and shake her head. 

* * *

Middle school starts and Tsuna figures out in a few short hours that it’s not going to be as bad as elementary school.  It’s going to be worse.  For now, he’s got a bit of a grace period as most of the kids coming from his elementary school are still adjusting to their new life as middle schoolers, but the uneasy feeling doesn’t fade.

Most seem to be uncaring or just okay or even kind of decent and Tsuna can deal with that.  His new science teacher is nothing like Ina-sensei though.

Nezu Dohachiro is petty and boastful and has a penchant of giving pop tests while doing barely enough teaching to warrant an average grade, much less the great-perfect-results he’s expecting.  Tsuna’s trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he can already tell that this year isn’t going to be pleasant.

Namichuu doesn’t have a reputation for being a good school.  There’s a few warring school gangs along with the usual stereotypical cliques that form anywhere there are more than a handful of people.

The head of the Disciplinary Committee is a pompadour haired delinquent. To be more accurate, he’s the pompadour haired delinquent that always has a grass stalk in his mouth because they all wear pompadours.  Tsuna hasn’t gotten close enough to tell what kind it is.  He also doesn’t have much hope for them because the DC spends most of its time getting into fights with the other gangs both in and out of their school and getting suspended. Thus they aren’t around to deal with the mass bullying issue.  Tsuna’s not sure if they would even if they were.

The bright spot in this all is that somehow Kyoko and Hana have ended up in all the same classes as him. 

Fon seems happy for him when he hears of this good news.  Yet, there’s something more than happy to his smiling disposition, something pleased, something almost…smug?  Lichi looks like a cat who got the canary, the goldfish and the cream.  Whatever it is, Tsuna’s not going to ask no matter how suspicious they seem.  It’s just a happy coincidence that the three friends managed to stay together in everything.  That’s all.

Tsuna gets Kyoko to help him bake several tiny fruit tarts decorated with candied flowers for them to take when they leave anyways.

* * *

Hana arrives a little out of breath at the Sawada house.

“Did-did you hear?”

Tsuna and Kyoko blinked. Fon, back from wherever he was, stops still holding the huge squash Nana was planning to use for dinner and even Lichi pauses his chatter.

“Hear what Hana-chan?” prompts Kyoko.

“Yamamoto Takeshi died this afternoon.  He was coming back from a baseball game and got hit by a truck.  All the witnesses say that he wasn’t paying attention and stepped onto the street while the light was still green.”

The name means nothing to Fon, but Nana gasps.

“Oh! Oh no.  Tsuyoshi-kun must be…”

Dinner is a quiet somber affair and Nana is distracted the entire time. After the dishes are done she announces that she’s leaving.

“Everyone.  I might not be back tonight.  Tsu-kun.”

This is something Tsuna hasn’t seen in a long time, but still remembers if only vaguely. 

“Right.  Take care.”

“Wait!” calls Hana. “Where are you going?”

Nana begins to pack a small bag with a few necessities.

“Tsuyoshi-kun was absolutely devastated when his wife died.  The only thing that gave him to strength to move on was his son and now that Takeshi-kun’s gone, I’m afraid...”

The implications sink in for Fon first and he gives her an understanding nod.

Tsuna later provides them with a bit of history about how Yamamoto’s mom was his mother’s tutor in high school and they had become good friends who kept in touch even years afterwards.  The last time he had seen this expression on his mother’s face was when she found out the woman had passed away from illness a few years ago.  

No one says more than a few good nights and it’s an unspoken acknowledgement that everyone is spending the night in Tsuna’s room.

Nana returns two days later. The funeral is to be held in a week.

Kyoko only makes it through that day with the warm press of her friends on either side and offers her condolences to the emotionally worn man who has lost the last of his family.  This is too much like how her brother’s funeral went and she ends up staying over in Tsuna’s room for three straight weeks.

* * *

It’s a rare day when Hana and Kyoko aren’t by his side.  Kyoko’s parents are home and she’s spending time with them.  Hana’s helping out at the family flower shop because they’re short-handed due to their employees being sick from a bout of food poisoning after a party.

“…your mother’s fault! She…”

“Don’t you bring my mother into this you bitch!  You never…”

It’s the same neighbors again.  The Heiwatake couple.  He knew he should have stayed on the other side of the street.  It was going to rain and Tsuna was halfway to the grocery store before realizing that he needed to go back to get his umbrella. 

There’s screaming and shouting and the same sense that lets Tsuna know when he’s being followed also lets him know when to stop moving.  It’s almost like a game of dodgeball except more dangerous and the benefits of allowing himself to get hit don’t outweigh the benefits of not letting them touch him.

Something green pokes out from a pile of shards and Tsuna kicks aside what’s left of them to reveal a small clematis vine clinging to the back of a small wicker chair back.  The rest of the chair is scattered around in pieces and he spares a moment to wonder if they chopped it up just to have more projectiles to throw at each other.

There’s still some root left from wherever it had been growing. Oh well.  Finders keepers.

It’s not like they’ll notice and everything here is going to be cleared away and trashed anyways. 

He ducks as a wall clock comes sailing out the window and towards his head next and decides to make a run for it.

The sky begins to pour before he gets far, soaking him through and through, but mercifully drowning out the sounds of the fight behind him.

“Well.” Tsuna gives a sardonic smile.  “I guess I know what I’m going to call you now.”

There’s still a few spare peat pots, but he’ll have to get something bigger, more permanent later to put in his room.  Tsuna finally reaches his yard and heads to the back to go through the green house first.  Hopefully he’ll be able to wring out most of the water there.

“Welcome to your new home Rain.”

* * *

**Huge AN here that won't fit in the end notes.**

**Since Ryohei died, Kyoko is no longer the same sweet carefree girl in canon.  In fact she has PTSD and I’m pretty sure I’m not doing it right.  Tsuna’s getting through school life with the support of his new friends however.  A little foreshadowing about Kusakabe and Hibari, and Yamamoto’s accident and retrieval by Tsuna and the cast is almost complete.**

**Reborn’s coming next time.  Going to be even crueler to Kyoko for the next couple chapters too, but it’s necessary.**

**The fun thing about characters with no known history/family is that you can do whatever you want when it comes to making them up.  Here, Hana’s OC parents who can be a bit little funny at times but are still normal as opposed to most of the canon characters.**

**I feel that if there was anything Tsuna was actually good at, he’d have a little more confidence in himself, because there would be something like “At least I can do this” instead of “I can’t do anything.”  So while he still gets flustered about other people praising him, his self-esteem isn’t as bad as it could be.  It’s still pretty bad though.  He’s far more observant than he realizes, but those that really get to know him figure this out pretty easily.  Also, yay for Tsuna making friends by bonding over mutual grief for the dead!**

**-Rather than streets having names, they give blocks numbers and leave the space in between the blocks, streets, nameless. There are some exceptions to this where certain streets do have names, like main thoroughfares, though these names are generally largely ignored by locals, postal workers, etc. If you want to find some location, rather than asking what street something’s on, you’d rather ask what block it is in.**

**From www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/most-japanese-streets-dont-have-names/**

**-Rain Chains: Called kusari-toi or kusari-doi which means ‘chain-gutter’. A decorative alternative to a downspout and common in Japan.  There are several different styles you can order online or if you’re in the mood for DIY then you can try making some yourself.**

**Plant Trivia:**

**Double asiatic lilies are unique in that they do not produce pollen.  Their anthers have been replaced with petals, creating a double flower and no pollen.  Doubles have an exceptional long bloom time in the garden.** **Petals are lightly spotted and produces 5-7 flowers per stem.**

**Ryohei currently has two stems.  One with 6 flowers and one with 7.**

**If Kyoko was a plant she would be a Buddleja/Buddleia (butterfly bushes), Breed: ‘Evil Ways’ Dark purple flowers with bright yellow leaves.**

**According to the Reborn wiki, the card game gave her a mist flame but it was never confirmed by Amano.   Here the flowers are a reference to her being a primary mist user with the yellow leaves hinting at a secondary sun flame.**

**The first breed I considered for her was ‘Flower Power’:  A bicolored hybrid. The flowers are purple/pink and orange.**

**Akebi/Akebia-A vine that is native to Japan, China and Korea, and naturalized in the eastern United States from Georgia to Michigan to Massachusetts.  Considered to be an invasive pest in certain areas/countries.  They need to be cross-pollinated to get fruit and even then it’s tends to be fickle.**

**Akebia quinata (Chocolate Vine or Five-leaf Akebia) and Akebia trifoliata (Three-leaf Akebia) are the two Tsuna is growing.**

**“Akebia is often mentioned in Japanese literature, where it is evocative of pastoral settings. Although the akebi commonly refers to the five-leafed species, the three-leafed species is used in much the same way for novelty food, medicine, and for vine material.**

**It is something of minor food source that was foraged in the past when other more conventional food sources were scarce. The pods contain a white, semi-translucent gelatinous pulp that is mildly sweet and full of seeds. The taste is described as sweet but rather "insipid". Some people recollect in idyllic terms how they foraged for it in the hills as children.**

**The purple-colored, slightly bitter rind has been used as vegetable in Yamagata Prefecture or in those northern areas, where the typical recipe calls for stuffing the rind with minced chicken (or pork) flavored with miso. Minor quantities of akebia are shipped to the urban market as novelty vegetable.**

**In Japan, the leaves are made into a tea infusion. Also, Akebia vines are used for basket-weaving crafts. “   -Wikipedia**

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted here
> 
> https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8796074/1/Heaven-s-Garden


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